A Bond Forged in Time
by Eternal Hope is My Company
Summary: Over a decade ago, a man meets his new work partner. Neither of them knew what their shared future would hold or how someday they would wish for the mundane nature of their earlier days. Eventually goes into EW1 & 2 timelines. Genre and Possible rating change later on. Possible Romance later on.
1. March 10th, 2005

_March 10th, 2005._

 _Since me and Myra are dating now, we can't be partners anymore. It sucks, but that's just the way things go. Today's the day I'm supposed to meet my new partner. I just hope they are just as good as Myra was, if not better, and someone I can stand…_

 __

Sebastian sighed softly at feeling his wife straighten out his tie yet again. Honestly, how many times had Myra come over and fixed something about his appearance? "Myra, stop worrying." He looked at her while Myra glared faintly at him.

"It is not about worry. It is about making a good first impression." Myra relaxed her gaze and smiled. "I wouldn't want your new partner to think you are an utter slob."

He rolled his eyes at that. It wasn't that he wanted to start off on a bad foot with this new partner he would be meeting. But, this person would not be Myra. No one would ever be his fiery spitfire of a girlfriend. They had worked well together, but protocol would not allow them to be partners and dating at the same time. At least losing her as a partner was so worth gaining her as his lover.

"Trust me, Myra. If I have as good of luck with this new partner as I did with you-" He laughed at feeling her slapping his upper arm lightly.

"And then me and you would have to discuss why neither of us would be good at polyamory." Sebastian laughed louder and kissed her forehead.

"True. We're both bad about sharing." He felt Myra kiss his cheek before taking a step away from him. He watched the way she looked him up and down. Not in the way that she wanted to strip him of his clothes unfortunately. More so making sure wrinkles did not show themselves and his appearance looked impeccable. Too bad he couldn't get her cold eyes to look heated right now.

"And you look good enough now." Myra smiled at him while gripping her purse. "Good luck, Mr. Castellanos." Her smile turned into a faint smirk. "Or maybe I should wish that good luck on your new partner?"

Sebastian smirked at her and winked. "You know best dear who needs the good luck." He told her before grabbing his bag and left their apartment alongside her.

Oh, the convenience of them both working at the same place.

He walked to his desk after having put his bag in his locker. Just before he sat down, he glanced over to see a desk that looked quite different from the others. He raised an eyebrow at the computer that looked to be from the 2000's rather than the 1990's and even a small laptop next to it. Now that hadn't been there the last time he worked. As he observed the desk, he happened to notice a Japanese lantern along with a glass hanger with multiple glasses of an older fashion resting on it.

Curiosity got the better of him as he walked over to the desk. He leaned over to examine the glasses, seeing the large lenses and frames to accommodate the lenses. Whoever wore these either had terrible vision or didn't care to have their eyes looking all bug-eyed. Who was this person though? Had to be someone new since no one else around here had this kind of equipment or aesthetic.

"Is there a problem?" An unfamiliar voice spoke behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see a man with black hair and some of the hair sweeping of the right side of his forehead. Glasses rested on the bridge of his nose that were also on the big side.

"No. Just not every day I come to work and see someone actually belonging to the modern era." He pointed at the computers. "Yet also doesn't at the same time." His finger now aimed at the two pairs of glasses. "I would almost say identity crisis if it wasn't for the fact this place probably does need a computer upgrade." As much as he had gotten used to his computer, he knew it didn't match the speed of the newer computers and laptops.

A faint chuckle escaped the stranger's lips. "I believe we all have our old-fashioned tastes." The man adjusted his glasses to keep them resting in perfect alignment. "But, I do agree about the computers. It feels like I'm back in my teen years being around so many Gateways. How do you all stand that?"

Sebastian found himself chuckling as well. "Maybe you've just come to the wrong place if you believe we all think it's an issue." He waved his hand about, motioning to how all of the computers matched except for the stranger's. "To answer seriously though, guess we're just used to it? Not like Krimson City always knows how to use its funds right." Because otherwise, the place probably would look more modern.

The stranger shrugged before blinking a bit. "Oh, how rude of me."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow and then noticed the man offering his gloved hand to him. Huh. Leather gloves covered both hands even though he wouldn't say it was cold enough for such. He stopped himself from asking as he gripped the hand in a firm grip.

"Joseph Oda." The man introduced himself with a polite smile on his face. Yet, Sebastian swore he saw the man faintly eye twitch. Why, he didn't quite know.

"Sebastian Castellanos. I prefer Sebastian though. Mister Castellanos or Castellanos is too formal." Even though he said that, it didn't stop people from disobeying his preference. "If you must call me by my last name, just leave off the Mister." He added to insure he wouldn't feel like an old man at the age of twenty-nine going on thirty in a few months.

"Alright, Castellanos." Okay. That was one point down for the stranger. He pushed back the irritation though since it knew it silly to get angry. Joseph did at least leave off the Mister.

"So, do you prefer Joseph or Oda?" Sebastian figured he should ask as he noticed Joseph had already let go of his hand. Had they even shaken their hands? He hadn't been too focused on that.

"Oda for now or Mr. Oda" Joseph quickly answered. Sebastian thought the man must have been used to people asking him that.

"Alright. Oda. Guess you are-"

"Detective Castellanos!" Sebastian stopped himself mid-statement to look over to see the police chief coming his way. Normally, he would assume he had done something wrong. Considering he was supposed to get a new partner today though, he decided to hope the encounter would be a good one.

"I see you already met your new partner. That's good. I don't have to do a formal introduction then." The police of chief smiled at them both in a friendly manner like he wasn't paying attention to Sebastian's widened eyes.

So, his partner was going to be Joseph? Sebastian turned his head to focus his gaze on Joseph again. "Well, I wouldn't mind knowing if I'm partnering up with a newbie or not." He mentioned to see if either of them would elaborate on if Sebastian was going to have to experience what Myra had went through dealing with him.

"No, I transferred here from another department. I've been a detective for about a year now." Joseph answered which caused Sebastian to tilt his head a bit. He couldn't help but notice it was about the same amount of time as himself.

"Yes, he moved here from another city just recently. It seems you both have raising through the ranks quickly in common since he too rose fast in his previous police department. Figured pairing two talented detectives would be a good idea." The police chief patted them both on the shoulder. "I wish you both the best."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes slightly at seeing the police chief whisper in Joseph's ear afterwards. Probably something bad about him that would sour Joseph's opinion of him. Swear the man had it out for him after the one time he _happened_ to beat up a suspected a child molester to the point of a bloody nose and a broken arm. Something about the reputation of the police department and so on so forth that he hadn't cared to listen to.

The police chief moved away and he saw Joseph looking back at him. He could almost cut the silence with a knife before Joseph coughed a bit. "So…he tells me you have quite the trigger-happy pair of fists, huh?" Sebastian totally called the police chief saying something bad about him.

"Hey, the guy deserved it for doing what he did." Sebastian still couldn't bring himself to feel guilty about giving the man a taste of his own medicine by inflicting pain on him.

"Yes well, I don't exactly appreciate bad cops." Joseph crossed his arms across his chest. "Even though I do get that sometimes it might be hard to resist for people with low self-control."

Sebastian narrowed his eyes briefly and slightly. Was his new partner trying to act better than him? That rubbed him the wrong way.

"So, try to behave yourself?" Joseph asked in a tone that wasn't necessarily condescending as Sebastian had expected. More like a tired plea from someone that hadn't the energy to deal with such.

He shrugged softly before smirking faintly. "I'll try if you give me incentive."

Joseph raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"You heard me. I would want incentive. As in…make it worth my while to behave." Sebastian smirked more and walked the few feet that separated them to make them quite physically close without touching. "Because let's just say I don't like the idea of people getting away with things just because the law says they can."

The two stared at each other for a minute or two before Joseph huffed loudly. "It's called following protocol, Castellanos. And trust me, I don't like suspects getting away either. But, there's a reason we have the law. We as part of the police must be the best role models at following said law to truly have the right to enforce it." Joseph explained with a frown on his face. "If you go along with playing the good cop, I'll show you we can put the bad guys away without force."

Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows and took a few steps back from Joseph. He noticed the way Joseph relaxed and no longer held a frown on his face. He could only assume the guy really didn't like the personal space invasion.

"Fine. And if we so much as fail once? We'll be doing things my way." He said firmly. "Now if we've gotten that settled, why don't I introduce you to some of the people around here? Help you know who to go to and all of that."

Joseph shrugged while nodding. "Sounds like a good idea. Lead the way."

Sebastian nodded and then started to walk ahead, hearing Joseph follow behind him.

Hopefully, this new partner would last longer than a day.


	2. March 13th, 2005

_March 13_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _Well, let's see how working with Joseph is going to really be like. After all, working out on the field really does show a detective's true colors._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wouldn't be the first time he didn't have too much interest in a case. While he knew every case had importance to putting more criminals away, he still felt a lack of challenge in such an open shut book case like this one. A suspect broke into a home and stole money, jewels, a laptop, and a TV. Neighbors nearby had witnessed a man that looked exactly like the ex-husband breaking into the ex-wife's home via the side window about two in the afternoon. Sounded like a case of a scorned lover getting back at their previous lover, especially since the ex-wife had admitted to currently dating someone.

Yet, even with everything fitting into place nicely, he noticed Joseph still didn't look pleased. Maybe it was the way the descriptions of the man were not ultra-specific. People's memories tended not to be the best and why eyewitness testimony was not always the best. Could it be the way the bedroom and the living room/office looked insanely chaotic when the ex-wife made it sound like the items were still in the same spots as they were when the ex-husband had moved out late last year? If only he could read minds.

He rubbed his temple and furrowed his eyebrows at Joseph's pacing back and forth across the hallway of the home. "Joseph, would you stop that?" He saw Joseph stop at that and look over at him.

"Sorry. Didn't notice I was pacing." Sebastian raised an eyebrow at Joseph saying that. But, he shrugged it off for now before approaching his partner.

"So, what's bothering you? Do you normally pace about like that?" He tiled his head slightly. With this being their first case as partners, he couldn't pinpoint Joseph's normal investigative habits. The only habit he noticed already was Joseph's almost constant note-taking. Speaking of that, he caught sight of Joseph pulling out his black notebook.

"No, I don't. But you are right, I am puzzled by some of one of the main details of this case." Joseph opened the notebook and flipped through it like a person very familiar with a book. The page flipping stopped as shortly as it began and he pointed his finger at notes he had written. "It involves the alibi given to us by the ex-husband."

Sebastian nodded slowly, trying to recall if he had heard anything about the alibi. He racked his brain quickly and realized that he must have left that to Joseph while he talked to the CSI people. "What about it?" He figured he should give some sort of prompting for Joseph to continue. For while he realized he could get Joseph to ramble about the importance of being a part of the modern world (more like argue), his partner was not the naturally talkative type.

"The ex-husband said he was at work during the time of the crime based on the eye witness accounts and when the ex-wife came home from work." Joseph explained while lifting the notebook up a bit. That way, Sebastian could look at the notes as well. About the only time he could look into the notebook since Joseph otherwise kept the notebook well-guarded. "Now we could say he is lying, but…look at this."

Joseph pointed at one of the notes he had written and Sebastian blinked a bit. "Wait, cameras caught him at his work at the time of the crime?" Sebastian blurted out with slightly widened eyes.

Well shit, that made the case not so easy to close. Not when their prime and only suspect now turned out to seemingly have a solid alibi. "Yes." Joseph spoke with a frown on his face. "It is true we need to consider this further, but the footage that was pulled from his work clearly leads to him not being the robber."

Sebastian sighed softly and focused his gaze now on Joseph's face instead of his notebook. "Then where do we look? Unless the neighbors are lying, we have a problem identifying another suspect." Sebastian said that with a hint of annoyance. The two huffed loudly almost at the same time.

At hearing that, Sebastian laughed. "Now, don't be trying to get in sync with me or else I'm going to call you out as creepy."

Joseph raised an eyebrow and shook his head at him. "It was simply a coincidence we both felt like expressing our frustration the same way."

Sebastian smirked a bit at his partner. " _Right_." He teased before the smirk shifted into a frown. "Now we better start seeing if the CSI recovered any fingerprints or something useful. Otherwise? We're fucked."

And even though Joseph clearly narrowed his eyes at his foul language, Sebastian swore Joseph murmured something along the lines of " _kuso_."


	3. March 15th, 2005

_March 15_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _What a way to spend a Saturday. Having to work overtime doing boring paperwork. How is he able to be so gun hoe about it? Sometimes, Joseph really is beyond my understanding..._

Sebastian huffed loudly while staring at his desk. It wasn't the first time he had found himself having to sit at his desk for hours on end. It wasn't even the first time the surface of his desk looked like a tornado struck it. Hell, he tended to keep his desk messy instead of organized. But, the last time he had seen this much paperwork had been shortly after he started. How in the hell had his paperwork backed up so much? Did the police chief decide to fuck him over by doubling his work, maybe even tripling the amount of papers to fill out and sign?

"The paperwork is not going to fill themselves out." He glared over at Joseph, who had to once again remind him how paperwork worked. He narrowed his eyes more at the way Joseph kept moving his hand across the papers on his desk. The way his partner quickly went from one form to another reminded him of a robot on an assembly line. The man had the stiffness of a robot to boot.

The older detective rubbed his temple and looked away from his partner. "Then how about you fill them out for me? I need a smoke break bad." Sebastian glanced at his Marlboro box that still had some cigarettes in it. The small amount though indicated he would need to get some soon. He gripped the box and started to take one of the cigarettes out. Just as he got it out of the box, he felt his hand smacked without warning.

"What the hell?" He turned his head while the unexpected shock caused him to drop the cigarette on the ground.

"One, no smoking in the office." Joseph glared at him. "Two, last time you went on a smoke break, you didn't come back for two hours." He huffed and rubbed at his temple. "I am not allowing you to do that again."

Sebastian hated how quickly Joseph picked up on his hatred of paperwork. Myra had been the same way. The main difference was their method to get him to do paperwork. While Myra had flirted with him and rewarded him with things to imagine in his bedroom later, Joseph didn't do anything remotely pleasing. Not even offering to get him a pack of the "death sticks" as Joseph had called them. There was no reward what so ever outside of getting Joseph to stop bitching for a while.

And Joseph usually found something else to bitch about. His partner rarely showed any sort of happiness once the two of them got thrusted into work. It was dreadful to deal with.

"Ugh. Then give me motivation dammit!" Sebastian glared back at Joseph and leaned back as much as he could against the chair. "And do not fucking say again that my motivation should be the sense of satisfaction that comes with finishing my tedious tasks. That just doesn't work for me." He quickly added, already having a feeling Joseph was going to say that.

The fact Joseph looked away with a scowl on his face made him affirm his assumption.

"I'm not getting you cigarettes." Joseph looked back at him and Sebastian rolled his eyes.

"We already established that yesterday. Come up with something else then!" The two glared at each other with Joseph now crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why do I need to come up with something? Can't you come up with something or are you purposefully being lazy with your thought processes?" Joseph clearly didn't care to hold back his annoyance that oozed off his words. "Besides, a grown man like yourself shouldn't be acting so childish about paperwork."

Sebastian felt a slight growl leave his throat. He gritted his teeth even as if trying to bare them at Joseph. "Everyone has things they hate, Joseph. And everyone has something they bitch about. Paperwork is what I bitch about. I get it done at some point. Shit." He leaned forward towards his desk, feeling his chest hit the edge of the desk. "I just like to be rewarded for doing this you know? Sometimes it feels like the paperwork leads to nothing but more bullshit, dead ends, and still no one getting punished in the end."

He swore he didn't have enough fingers on his hands nor toes on his feet to count how many times cases had turned downhill and made all the effort not worth it. Not every case could be solved or sometimes people got away. Other times the cases ended up in drastically different directions that caused paperwork to have to be redone, tests to be redone, and pretty much everything else. He never knew when a case would end up that way and thus made self-motivating himself to do paperwork all the harder.

"I mean, how the hell do you do it? How can you just self-motivate yourself like that knowing it might lead to nothing or have to be redone?" Sebastian asked before taking a deep breath. Getting worked up like this only made the craving for nicotine worse. "Swear you are not human." He said lowly and completely turned away from Joseph.

Joseph sighed and Sebastian heard Joseph stand up from his chair. "I have always been told the reward of completing things was enough. That was how I was raised." Well, first time Sebastian had heard anything related to Joseph's home life. "Guess not everyone is able to do that." Joseph spoke those words as if half relenting half astounded that was the case. Sebastian scowled briefly at that.

"But, you must understand you have to get it done. I'm not doing your paperwork and I wouldn't ask you to do mine unless some extreme circumstances made that necessary." Joseph explained. Sebastian heard Joseph start to walk off. "So, just get it on it already. Bit-…. complaining will only get you so far if any at all."

Sebastian covered his mouth at realizing Joseph had almost said bitching. The man had not cursed yet in the almost first week he had known him. He snickered behind his hand while under the belief Joseph had decided to leave him alone. If only he could get his partner to let loose a little bit…It seemed like it wouldn't happen though.

His fingers gripped onto the pen and slowly tapped the top end against the papers. After taking a couple of deep breaths to repress the urge to smoke, he made himself start to fill out the forms and sign the paperwork. Probably ten minutes later (which felt like an hour), Sebastian stiffened in the middle of filling out a name at the sight of a cup placed in front of him. He looked up to see the contents better as well as noticing a black gloved hand moving away from the Styrofoam cup.

"Maybe knowing you'll get a cup of black coffee with a tad bit of sugar will help?" Sebastian looked up at hearing Joseph. This time, Sebastian didn't find himself glaring, narrowing his eyes, scowling, or anything negative like that. Instead, he found himself capable of a small smile.

"See? There's something to being nice, Joseph." Sebastian joked and chuckled softly. He noticed Joseph shaking his head. But, he swore he would see a bit of an amused smile.

"Does that mean you will get me something for doing paperwork?" Joseph asked with just the slightest hint of jest. If Sebastian hadn't noticed how bad Joseph can be about sounding joking, he might have taken the guy seriously.

The older detective furrowed his eyebrows before smiling more. "Well, you like coffee? Think I can learn to make a mean cup of joe." He said seriously and noticed the way Joseph's eyes widened behind his glasses. He even saw Joseph adjust his glasses, a bit of a nervous habit he assumed.

"…. We apparently have very similar coffee tastes." Sebastian's eyes widened at Joseph saying that before Sebastian laughed.

"Well, then this will be easy. I'll treat you to some coffee and a meal to make it more difficult." Sebastian smirked and Joseph looked at him like he grew an extra head.

"Castellanos! That is too much. A cup of coffee is fine." Joseph huffed loudly and sat back at his desk, facing the paperwork once more.

Sebastian shook his head with an amused smile and started back on his paperwork. "Fine, but if you ever do remember what I said, you can take up on it." He briefly smirked over at Joseph who clearly wasn't paying attention to his expression. He swore though Joseph might have smiled at that as Sebastian took a deep breath and dived back into the boring paperwork that consumed his ever-living days.


	4. March 21st, 2005

_March 21_ _st_ _, 2005_

 _Yet another week full of cases and dealing with criminals. I swear it feels like there are more criminals than there are people on the force somedays. But, that does not mean I'm going to give up. Myra won't either and I have feeling Joseph won't either. Somedays though, it is nice to try and get your mind off things by having a night out. Connelly and some of the other men had suggested going out for a drink. Wonder if Joseph has taken time to himself to relax…maybe he should come along too._

"So, it has really turned out to be a cliché soap opera case huh?" Sebastian remarked while leaning back against his chair and looking over at Joseph. It had become easier for Sebastian to move to sit by Joseph's desk than the other way around. Joseph tended to get off track about the messiness of his desk otherwise.

"Yes…somehow it has." Joseph huffed as he kept his notebook open in front of him. "To think the ex-husband had kept having a twin brother a secret from his ex-wife."

Sebastian bit his bottom lip slightly to stop from chuckling. Joseph actually sounding astounded, even a little bit, humored him too much.

"Yeah well, the guy didn't think it through very well though. Looking up birth records for him easily gave us the clue about the younger twin." Sebastian gripped the cup of coffee off Joseph's desk. At least his partner let him use his desk as a coffee cup placer. "Plus, I'll give you props for noticing the difference in the placement of their facial moles to show it wasn't the exact same person." Maybe he would have noticed later. However, it was better for someone to have spotted it early on.

Joseph smiled briefly and faintly. Sebastian wondered if the man ever smiled enough to show teeth or smiled longer than two seconds. "It was simply knowing how to observe is all." Joseph brushed off the compliment. "To think the ex-husband was that desperate to get back at his ex-wife by messing with her that way. I really do not understand people sometimes." Joseph scowled now longer than he had smiled. No surprise to Sebastian there.

Sebastian took another drink of his coffee before sighing. "Some people really don't like being scorned. That's why the warning about scorned lovers exist, Joseph." He chuckled with a hint of a grin. Even though he would admit he himself could not imagine trying to make an ex-lover look psychotic by saying their ex-husband robbed them when the ex-husband was clearly at work. Weirdos.

"Since we have to let the courts handle it now, we might as well move on to another case for now. Until the courts or someone else related to that case needs us." He suggested and Joseph nodded.

"Alright." Joseph flipped through his notebook. "We got a couple of missing person's cases we could look over." Both detectives frowned. If there was one thing for sure they shared, it was disliking not having caught a repeated offender that still kept on going. "That is, if you're in the mood."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at Joseph asking that. "You well there?" He asked without a hint of jest. Joseph huffed and shook his head.

"No, nothing like that. I just overheard you earlier talking to Connelly and the other officers. Something about going out to drink?" Joseph explained while Sebastian relaxed. He did not need his partner getting sick on him or thinking he was sick.

"You're right. They did suggest that. I was thinking of going with them." Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows and smirked slightly. "You could always come along you know."

Joseph's eyes widened slightly. "What? Go out to a bar?" The detective huffed loudly and scowled. "I don't like going around getting drunk and acting like a fool." Joseph affirmed while looking away. "So, no thanks."

He swore he could have called Joseph acting that way about the idea. From the way Joseph frowned at any talk of tomfoolery, he couldn't imagine Joseph being too into that kind of stuff. He furrowed his eyebrows more though as he finished up his coffee. After placing the cup down, Sebastian glanced over at Joseph's desk. "What about going to a museum?" He blurted out with his eyes looking at the Japanese lantern.

"What?" Joseph looked at him with slightly widened eyes and opened mouth. "Didn't you say something to your…. girlfriend about not liking museums?"

Ah shit so Joseph heard that conversation. Myra had wanted to go to an art museum to see an exhibit. He hadn't wanted to because staring at art invoked nothing in him but boredom. They compromised by suggesting they go to the exhibit that Sunday for an hour or so and then go to a theater to watch an action adventure movie afterwards. They both got what they wanted.

"Well…. if you happened to hear the whole conversation, I said I would be willing to go for a bit. I just didn't want to spend an entire day there." Sebastian tapped gently at the lantern. "And besides, I heard they had some exhibit on Japanese festivals and I think one of them involved lanterns."

Joseph shrugged softly while adjusting his glasses. "Yes, there is a celebrated lantern festival in Japan." He stood up from his chair and put up his notebook in his vest pocket. "I'm more surprised you actually paid attention to such a thing." He looked over at Sebastian with slightly furrowed eyebrows. "Do you normally like to surprise people like that?"

Sebastian chuckled and stood up from his own chair. He pushed the chair back under the desk of some person that wasn't in today. "I'm just more observant than you think is all." Sebastian stretched his arms above his head slowly to a nice stretch. "Now come on. I believe the museum is still open for another hour or so." He headed towards his desk to grab his car keys and cell phone.

"Two hours actually." Joseph said quickly as he walked passed.

"I think you were just looking for an excuse to go." Sebastian smirked and followed his partner. All he got was a loud huff in response from Joseph. He chuckled at that, choosing to walk besides his partner. They would have to decide who would drive and all of that. But, he found himself more focused on the fact this would be the first time they ever hang out outside of work.

"You know, I think it took me only three days to get Myra to go out with me." He joked with his smirk growing now.

Joseph raised an eyebrow at him before rolling his eyes slightly. "I guess I just require more work."

Sebastian laughed loudly and smacked Joseph hard on the back. "Oh man, Myra would be so pissed if she heard you say that." He blinked at Joseph glaring at him. Only when he noticed Joseph's tenseness did he huff and roll his eyes in an exaggerated manner. "But I think you might be right." He muttered to himself, still not used to how Joseph was so obsessed with personal space. Not like Myra was touchy feeling, but she didn't give him a death glare for patting her on the shoulder when they were just partners.

One step forward and two steps back might as well have been his life motto and the embodiment of his attempted friendship with Joseph Oda.


	5. April 1st, 2005

_April 1_ _st_ _, 2005_

 _Apparently, I had messed up on when the exhibit related to Japanese festivals was. Instead, we ended up in an exhibit related to the human body. It wasn't bad. But, I think I've seen enough insides of a human due to my work. Joseph seemed to have a fun time though and I guess that is what matters. Hell, he knew more about the names of muscles than I did. Today starts the Japanese festival exhibit. This time, maybe I will actually be invested in what I'm seeing._

Sebastian stepped into the museum for the third time in about a week's time. Swore if he knew he would be in the museum so much, he would have brought camping supplies and just stayed there the whole week or some shit. But, that would be worse than camping out at an opera theater.

"Castellanos?" Sebastian blinked and looked over at Joseph. "I think it's best we don't just stand around."

Sebastian huffed, noticing people walking past them in different directions. Some families and other groups had finished their stay and left through the main entrance. Other clusters of people he saw headed through the various entrances to the exhibits that lied within. The Japanese exhibit had a fancy little banner above it instead of the plated lettering of the other exhibits. He supposed it was easier to put up a temporary banner than to have to constantly change metal letters.

"Well, lead the way then. I don't know jack shit about these festivals." He heard Joseph huff before he saw Joseph head towards the exhibit entrance. Sebastian followed and soon stood once more besides his partner. While it didn't surprise him that there was a decent amount of people in there, he did find himself raising an eyebrow at some of the objects inside the glass cases and artwork on the walls.

One case contained a statue that appeared made of fake snow. Another case contained a small-scale boat with mini-human statues frozen in the act of rowing the boat. It didn't help his confusion when he saw a picture of a mountain on fire? He approached the picture and read the description underneath the picture.

" _"Wakakusa Yamayaki": An annual festival during which the grass on the hillside of Mount Wakakusayama is set on fire."_

"What the fuck?" Sebastian scowled slightly. "Why the fuck would you set a fire like that?" His mind rapidly went through all the worst-case scenarios of playing with fire like that. Did none of those people think about if the fire spread and destroyed any towns nearby?

"You interested in the Wakakusa Yamayaki festival?" Sebastian stiffened at hearing Joseph's voice.

"Were you purposefully trying to spook me?" He turned to face his partner. He swore Joseph had a faint smirk on his face. However, he hadn't caught his partner truly smirking yet. Might have honestly been his imagination.

"No. I just noticed you staring at the picture like you were watching World's Dumbest."

Sebastian shrugged softly. "What? If you ever seen even one episode of that show, you would know why I look like I'm seeing the biggest idiots on Earth." He explained while shifting his gaze back towards the picture. "But yeah, I guess I am a bit curious. Why the hell do they do that?"

Joseph looked up at the picture and adjusted his glasses. "There are various theories as to where the festival originated. Some say it was the result of the mountain being set on fire due to a boundary dispute between two temples. Others say it was simply a way to get rid of pests such as wild boars." He took out his notebook, placing his pen against the paper. "It is kind of fascinating though that it turned into a festival. They apparently celebrate this every January on the fourth Saturday."

As Joseph looked to be writing something in his notebook, Sebastian absorbed the information. If anything, he found the festival even more stupid. What was the use honoring a method to kill pests or recall some random boundary dispute? To him, it would be like making a festival out of hunting wild game or a festival out of the Crusades. Just something idiotic.

"And they turned that into a festival?" Sebastian looked over and blinked at seeing Joseph tense and move his notebook away. While he knew Joseph didn't like him prying, he didn't know why the guy acted so weird about even glancing at the contents of the notebook. He huffed and rolled his eyes. "You are so shit at hiding things."

Joseph glared at him while putting up his pen and notebook. "It is still none of your concern what I was doing." He quickly said and then took a deep breath to calm his emotions. "But yes, for some reason, it became a festival. I would say it is like how simply enjoying a particular drink gets turned into a festival. Someone must have found it worth celebrating for whatever reason." He remarked with a slight shrug.

"Right…." Sebastian glanced over his shoulders. "Hopefully, the other festivals in here won't be as stupid." He turned away from the picture, looking to see if anything else caught his interest. "Besides, if all these festivals turned out to be moronic, I think I would be offended to be half-Japanese, Joseph." The first name slipped without him thinking and he tensed realizing he had said it.

He turned his head to look at Joseph. His partner glared at him slightly and he knew he could see a faint frown on his face. The guy had been adamant about referring to him by his last name to everyone at the station. So, he knew it wasn't some singling out that he had been asked to call Joseph, "Oda", as well. He just wasn't used to being so formal with someone he worked with daily (He still recalled the many times the police chief got on him for calling him "Jim" instead of Sir or Chief Vankirk.).

Even though he could hear footsteps, chit-chat, and various sounds like laughter around them, he felt suffocated by the silence between them. Joseph's expression was not relaxing and he himself felt tense like a coil ready to spring. When someone bumped against his side, he felt the tension leave him. He glared briefly at the passerby before looking back at Joseph.

"Hey, I'm-" Sebastian blinked at Joseph raising his hand. He stopped himself and watched Joseph lower the hand and his expression turn into furrowed eyebrows and a straight-lined mouth.

"Just don't go around saying it when we're at work. They might think I'm giving you special treatment or that I really don't like them. I don't need unnecessary conflict due to my preferences." Joseph huffed before looking away.

Sebastian tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "So, you're saying I can call you Joseph?" He asked, noticing Joseph still not looking at him. "I'm just making sure alright? I mean, while I am curious why you want to be called by your last name, I've done my best to go along with it. It's just not something I'm used to or something I do myself." He did his best to give a small smile. "Besides, you looking all pouty is kind of cute and that's really weird for me to think about you."

Joseph's eyes widened and he glared back at Sebastian. "I am not pouty one! Two, I am not cute! Three, not my fault your mind is weird oddly." He glared more.

Sebastian glared briefly as well at the comment before Joseph shook his head.

"Anyway, it's a respect thing in Japanese culture. Even with me being half-Canadian, I respected the idea of using your last name instead of your first. The reason they do that is out of politeness and not wishing to assume too personal of a connection with someone." Joseph explained while crossing his arms over his chest. "But, I know that is not really the American way of going about things."

Sebastian nodded. "It's not that we don't do the same though. We just don't have as much personal bubble attachment to our first names? You calling me Sebastian or me calling you Joseph doesn't mean that we're ultra-close. It just means we are on the same playing field and not one being worthier of respect or an authority figure over the other. At least, that's how I look at it." He wasn't used to having to explain something that seemed so simple to him. With Joseph looking at him with that hint of a smile again though, he figured he had succeeded.

"I will keep that in mind." Joseph said before turning away from Sebastian. "Now, it's probably best we move on to a different part of the exhibit. We are blocking the view for others."

Only after Joseph said that did Sebastian notice others trying to get close to the picture. And with him and Joseph standing in front of the description box, no one had been likely able to read what the picture was even about. "Right. How about we go over there and you explain that to me?" Sebastian pointed towards a glass case that held a tiered red clothed covered stairway (to him anyway) that had dolls and objects on the various tiers.

"Fine. I will explain the Hinamatsuri festival to you. Now come on." Joseph said as he started to walk towards that glass case.

Sebastian followed with his hands in his pockets.

At least now he didn't have to watch it every time he referred to Joseph by name. He didn't think Joseph would ever know how hard that been not to call him by his first name. Such a weird little quirk amongst many of his partner that he hoped to learn to deal with better with time.

"The Hinamatsuri festival, or Doll Festival, is…."

But, for now, he figured he could just stand there and relax and let Joseph do all the nerding out talking he wanted. Sounded like the guy might have needed it more than he truly knew.


	6. May 15th, 2005

_May 15th, 2005_

 _There hasn't really been much to note of lately. Me and Myra's relationship is going along smoothly and I couldn't ask for anything more. I have been contemplating asking Myra to marry me. But, I haven't figured out how to do so. I don't even have a ring yet! I really should get to work on that…._

Sebastian shrugged while having his hands in his pockets. As people walked past him to their various destinations, he found himself in front of another jewelry shop window. More than once he had found himself standing in front of a jewelry shop or even entering one. But, he saw no ring that truly fit his girlfriend. If anything, he swore he had better luck finding a ring for himself than for her.

As a matter of fact, he stared at a golden band that rested in the jewelry case. The ring had no fancy engravings or gems lined along the outside. Even if a brief frown appeared on his face at the reminder of someone else in his life wearing such a band, he knew he would take better care of the ring. The symbol of bonding himself to another would not be neglected like that person had done for as long as he had known them.

He turned away from the window. While pushing the memories back from his mind, he stood there quietly. The golden band still looked nice even with the negative connotations. He could see himself wearing it as a reminder of him and Myra's commitment to each other till the day he died. Yet, last time he checked, buying a ring for himself would only put him into debt for no reason. Not like he was made of money.

 _Damn this is hard._ Sebastian huffed and walked into the store. He might as well see if maybe a ring further into the store would work for Myra. However, he blinked and stiffened at the sight of someone he wasn't expecting. While he knew it was possible to run into co-workers outside of work, why the fuck was he seeing Joseph of all people? Being caught ring-shopping by his partner just caused him to scowl. But, he was no fucking coward.

When Joseph had his attention on one of the necklace cases, Sebastian walked away from the entrance of the store and moved towards the ring case. He glanced down at the many rings offered from the more simplistic to the more extravagant. Even though his gaze remained on the rings, his mind focused on the fact his partner was in a jewelry store.

Did Joseph have a lover? Was he buying something for himself? A birthday gift for someone? Was he just bored and window shopping?

"Sir?" Sebastian looked up at hearing one of the workers there. "Did you need help with anything?" The young man asked, looking to be in his mid-twenties versus Sebastian's going on thirty. Sebastian shrugged softly.

"Just ring shopping. Don't know what I want yet. Thanks though." He hoped his response would get the man to go away. He wasn't in the mood for dealing with someone trying to thrust their opinion on him.

"Alright. Let me or one of the other workers here know if you need anything." The worker said before leaving Sebastian be.

Sebastian huffed softly while resting his hands on the top of the glass ring case. Still nothing seemed to strike at his fancy. Myra deserved a ring as amazing as herself and yet she would kill him if he splurged too much money. He looked at one ring that had a single diamond with a golden band. That might be able to work. Would she prefer a silver band though? Did she even like diamonds?

"Castellanos?" Only one person tended to call him that. Sebastian turned slowly, hesitant in his movements. He couldn't stop the inevitable though. His eyes locked with Joseph Oda's.

"Yes, it's me." He admitted before furrowing his eyebrows. "What are you doing here?" Since Joseph had caught him, he might as well get out his nagging question.

Joseph shrugged slightly. "A birthday gift for my mother back home. It is her 50th birthday. So, I figured she deserved something special." He answered once again with that brief faint smile. Sebastian swore Joseph didn't know how to smile any other way. "What are you doing here?"

Sebastian should have known Joseph would have asked the same thing back. While he didn't think Joseph and Myra were close, they did seem to get along. He could only hope Joseph wasn't a shitty secret keeper. Otherwise, Joseph would call him on his bluff later and that would be annoying.

"I'm looking for a ring for Myra." He told Joseph bluntly. "I just am shit about deciding what ring would be best for her. She's practical, but I don't want to be cheap about it either. You know?" Sebastian pointed at the rings. "It's not an easy thing to solve." He watched the way Joseph now furrowed his eyebrows and look down at the rings. What he hadn't expected was Joseph pointing to one of the rings.

"I could see her with that ring." After hearing Joseph say that, Sebastian looked at the ring in question. It was a silver band with three small diamonds on the top part of the band. "It seems simple enough to me, but has some elegance to it. It's not full of a lot of gems or stuck with one huge gem. Plus, I believe silver would better match her suits." Joseph looked at Sebastian. "But, you're the one that has got to be happy with the choice."

Sebastian nodded slightly even though his eyes never left the ring. He waved his hand to get one of the worker's attention. "Can I see that one?" The worker took out the ring and handed it to him. Now that he could see it up close, he saw the way the diamonds shined against the light and the silver reflected a distorted wrongly colored version of himself. He nodded again before handing the ring back to the worker. "Is there a version with only two diamonds?"

As the worker walked away to check, Sebastian noticed Joseph's raised eyebrow. "She likes evenness." Joseph seemed satisfied with the answer since he didn't say anything back.

It didn't take long for the worker to come back with the version with two diamonds instead of three. His eyes slightly widened at the image of Myra wearing such a ring. "Oh, that looks really nice." Sebastian frowned right after saying that. "Wait…. how much does it cost?" Oh god he hoped it wasn't thousands of bucks worth.

"The cost is….two thousand dollars with tax of course." The worker answered with a hint of a friendly tone. "If you are interested in this ring, we would just need to know ring size so the ring will fit properly."

Sebastian blinked a few times. He remained quiet as the worker stood there and Joseph now tilted his head. "Castellanos? Do…you even know her ring size?" The voice of his work partner snapped him out of his stupor.

"No, I don't." He swore he could have heard Joseph's facepalm a mile away.

"You can't go ring shopping without knowing that, Castellanos!" Joseph huffed and looked at the worker. "Sorry, we'll have to come back another time." He gripped Sebastian's arm and tugged him away from the ring counter. "Honestly, going ring shopping unprepared like that...you really do hate being prepared, don't you?"

Sebastian glared at Joseph. "Ha. Ha. It slipped my mind was all." He felt Joseph let go of his arm and he brushed his arm like he was getting off some dirt. "But, at least I now have a promising idea of what ring I can go for." He smiled slightly as he stopped glaring. "Thanks for that by the way. You didn't have to do that."

"Yes well, I actually respect Myra. So, I would want to make sure her boyfriend does not get her some horrible piece of jewelry." The glare returned in full force as this time Sebastian knew Joseph had the faintest hint of a smirk on his face.

"You have such confidence in me, don't you?" Sebastian glared more while Joseph looked away.

"I have some. Just not fully." Joseph admitted as he focused on the necklaces. "Now, since clearly weren't ready to ring shop, you'll repay me back the favor by helping me necklace shop. Otherwise, I will make you do both of our paperwork."

Sebastian's eyes widened. "What? You said you wouldn't do that!"

"Under certain circumstances I said I would. And considering I just helped you figure out a possible ring for you to propose with? I…might be willing to consider that one of those circumstances." Joseph kept having that faint of a smirk for a bit longer before going back to his normal neutral expression. "Now, what do you think? Gold or silver necklace…."

Sebastian rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "I say gold. Go all out." He smirked at Joseph who shook his head.

"I'll keep that in mind." Sebastian chuckled now at Joseph's deadpan reply. He stood there as Joseph kept looking and he found himself starting to look himself. Guess he was so bored now he wanted to see if he could find a nice-looking necklace.

Admittedly, it was probably better to say he had helped Joseph find a birthday gift than say to Myra he failed to remember her ring size. Yeah, he needed to put some effort into finding a nice pretty necklace for Mrs. Oda so Myra would believe his excuse.

"Do you even know what she likes?" Sebastian raised a brow while Joseph stared at some of the necklaces hanging off mannequin busts.

"Yes, I do. She tends to be a woman that doesn't want to wear something gaudy or fancy. I suppose like Myra in that regard. Just with it being her 50th birthday and all, I figured I could indulge a little and get her something nicer than what she usually wears. Such a birthday does not come around again."

Sebastian nodded slightly and pointed to a necklace with a silver chain and a small gem hanging off it. He didn't recognize the gem from looking at it. What drew him to it was the two colors within the gem that blended pretty well together. "Joseph, does she like orange and purple?" He glanced over, and Joseph tilted his head slightly.

"I believe it depends on the exact shades. Why?" He walked over as if realizing Sebastian must have been talking about one of the necklaces.

"What about that one? Apparently, the gem is called…," Sebastian narrowed his eyes, trying to red the writing beneath the necklace. "Ame….trine?" He scowled a bit at how much he struggled.

"Castellanos? Are you unable to-"

"Are you interested in that necklace?" The same worker from earlier came over. Sebastian figured the guy must have been bored out of his mind to pester them more than once. He took the chance to back up from the case.

"Maybe." He pointed to Joseph with his thumb. "He's the one looking. Not me." He took some more steps back to get himself away from Joseph. With Joseph forcibly caught up in a conversation with the worker, he hoped it would distract Joseph from what he was about to ask. From where he stood though, he couldn't tell hear what the two were discussing. But, it seemed to be going well with the worker taking out the necklace and Joseph examining the jewelry.

He tensed slightly at hearing his cell phone go off in his pocket. He took it out and pressed it against his ear. "Hey." He smiled at bit at hearing Myra on the other end. "Yeah, I'll be there soon. Just wanted to walk around for a bit. Love you too." He hung up and blinked at seeing Joseph in front of him now.

"Oh? How did it go?" Sebastian asked, and Joseph smiled more than a faint smile.

"It went well. While I plan to go to some other jewelry stores and check online to see if I could get that necklace at a better price, I at least have an idea what to get her now. Thanks."

Sebastian blinked. "Wait, you actually go around and do that?"

The smile quickly slipped off Joseph's face. "You don't?"

The two stared at each other for a minute before Sebastian quickly looked away. "I should probably get going."

"Castellanos! That's just bad shopping to do it otherwise!" Joseph cried out as Sebastian quickly headed out the door. "Hey!"

Sebastian didn't hear anymore once the door shut behind him. He relaxed while walking down the street. "That's just what I get for admitting that to him of all people." He shook his head before faintly chuckling. "But, maybe I should actually do that from now on." He just wasn't going to admit to Joseph that maybe he was grateful for the indirect shopping advice.


	7. June 5th, 2005

_June 5_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _I am going to propose to her tomorrow. I have the ring and everything now thanks to Joseph and his mother. Yes, his mother apparently decided to add some input after Joseph casually told her my mishap. For now, I am trying to find ways to relax to keep my nerves down. I know there is always something I can turn to…._

Yet another day where he could only sit around and do nothing. Well, at least after he had gotten everything done. For once, he wasn't drowning in paperwork and he had done all the calls and checking up on lab results he could. Joseph probably had gotten done with his share of the work hours ago. But, even with his desire to punish criminals, he just could not bring himself to hurry through the mundane annoying procedures required to put them in jail like Joseph could. Only interrogations proved worthwhile and he hadn't any he could do today.

So, he found his mind wondering to Myra. His lovely girlfriend who would soon be his fiancé. She likely had no idea unless Joseph or her family had spilled the beans. He highly doubted it since Myra hadn't come up to him today or any of the other days asking about any ring escapades or why he had talked to her mother and father on the phone a week ago. However, maybe if she had already been told, then he wouldn't find his body tensing and his heart racing at her reaction to his proposal because he would already know how she felt about it.

Nether the less, he knew he preferred it this way in the end. It was the proper way in his mind for a proposal to be a bit of a romantic surprise. If only that stopped the nerves.

He hummed softly to himself while rummaging through one of his desk drawers. Just some random combination of notes that sounded soothing to him in that moment. As his fingers gripped onto what he sought, he glanced from left to right and back and forth quickly. When he didn't see anyone looking his way, he took out the old worn book.

 _A Study in Scarlet_ was one of those few books he could re-read repeatedly. All because he honestly just loved the book. He did enjoy the other works containing Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. But, there was something about the very first book and exploring how the two began their partnership and started working together that never got boring. Then again, maybe he was just a sucker for good detective novels, let alone anything from a day long past.

He opened the book, careful to not make the worn corners tear more of the book cover. Before he could start reading, he put on his reading glasses he kept within the same drawer. Starting right back on page one, he started to re-read the book. His lips mouthed the words on the page softly to himself. Sometimes, he even started translating the word into Spanish without meaning to. Whispering sentences in his native tongue that were written in English.

His whispering stopped when he heard someone cough behind him. Quickly, he whirled around in his chair to see his partner, Joseph. Sebastian cleared his throat. "Oh, hey there. Guess you got your work done?" He tried to hide the book quickly in his desk drawer. There was no way he could hide the glasses on his face. "Just was killing time you know? Nothing else to do around here." Sebastian kept on talking as he shut the drawer. The book hopefully hadn't taken any damage.

"Yes, I did." Joseph remarked while he looked at the desk drawer Sebastian had shut. "Didn't know you read to kill time."

Sebastian paled slightly and huffed softly. "Dammit. I didn't want you to see that." He muttered some curse words in Spanish. "But yes, I do sometimes. Why?"

Joseph shrugged while faintly smirking. "It's nice to see you do something that isn't rowdy for once. I didn't know you had it in you."

"Ha. Ha." Sebastian rolled his eyes before turning towards his desk. "Did you just come over to mess with me about that?" He punched his fingers against the keyboard and started up the old computer. As the computer took a few minutes to boot up, he heard something plopped onto his desk.

"No, but I might as well take advantage of it." Sebastian raised an eyebrow at that statement. He turned his head to see Joseph walking back to his desk. As he forced himself to look back at the computer, he noticed something new on his desk. His hand grasped onto the book that must have just been purchased recently with no yellowing of pages or creases to show age. While he didn't recognize the authors or the title, he did get an idea of the genre from glancing at the summary on the back.

A murder mystery novel like some of the mysteries Sherlock Holmes solved. He glanced over to see Joseph typing away at his computer. Maybe Joseph had gotten a present he didn't want and used finding out he liked reading to pawn it off on him. For whatever reason, he now had a new book to read or at least try to read anyways. Might as well take advantage of the gift and start to read it while his computer still took ages to boot up. Stupid mother fucking computer.

He gripped the book and opened it, adjusting his glasses slightly.

"Though, since when did you wear glasses?" Of course, Joseph had to blurt out that question.

Sebastian huffed and looked over his shoulder at Joseph. "I don't need them all the time or anything. Just…Myra was getting on me about my stubbornness to not wear them at all. So, I relented and started to at least keep them around in case I really couldn't read what was on the documents and all."

He tensed at Joseph narrowing his eyes at him. "Wait, you are telling me you were letting your ego get in the way of you being able to read well?"

"…Yeah" Sebastian glanced back towards the book. "It's also why I don't like people knowing I like to read. Because while I can find ways to get around not wearing glasses when I'm looking over documents, I can't with books. My eyes will strain, and the words will blur after a while." He scowled slightly. "And I hate having to stop just because of my eyes when I really get into a story."

He dared to turn his head and saw Joseph no longer glaring at him. Instead, he heard his partner sigh. "Look. I get it. People sometimes make fun of those that wear glasses immaturely or think glasses don't look good on them." Joseph adjusted his own as if trying to indicate he knew what he said personally. "But, I've always believed it's better to see than to let others convince you otherwise. Besides, I've heard there are contact options."

Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows. "Right." He took off his glasses and looked at them. He recalled having them a number of years ago now, and the style was probably out of date. However, he still remembered how he acquired the glasses and he wasn't sure he was ready to get rid of them just yet…

"Though, it is also okay just to stick with glasses." Joseph's voice cut through Sebastian's thoughts. "I personally stick with mine for a few reasons. Some practical and some sentimental."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Sentimental?"

Joseph frowned faintly. "Yeah. I have an attachment to these glasses." He turned back towards his laptop. "I can't bring myself to get rid of them."

Since Joseph didn't explain his attachment, Sebastian figured he wasn't going to get an answer. "Me too." He admitted out loud while turning to face the old desktop computer, seeing it was now booted up and ready to go.

He placed the new book down and put the old book back in the drawer. Then, he placed the glasses back on his face.

"Last question before you should focus on your work." Sebastian heard Joseph say. "Is you not wearing your glasses why you kept saying the prices wrong on those rings my mother and I sent you links to?"

He didn't dare say a word to that, quickly pecking on the keys on the keyboard.

"Seriously Castellanos." Joseph groaned out before shaking his head and starting to type on his own computer. He swore his partner was sometimes absolutely hopeless. "I just hope your proposal goes better." Joseph muttered softly to himself while leaving Sebastian alone to focus on his work.


	8. June 28th, 2005

_June 28_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _Myra wanted to host a party with some of the people from work. While we have been working on wedding invitations and told our families, she wanted to personally tell those at work. That way, we could get all the congratulations over with at once. Hopefully. But, who knew how crowded this place would feel with so many people. I had to retreat to my room to clear my-_

"Sebastian?" He looked over his shoulder to see Myra calling to him from the opened bedroom door. "It's probably time now we made the announcement. Everyone's getting a little too…curious."

Sebastian nodded with a faint smile on his face. "I figured. I'll be out in a minute or two." He waited until Myra nodded and shut the bedroom door before placing his pen back against his journal page.

 _mind. Too many people and all of that. But now, I must go back out there and hope for the best. At least I know Joseph is around. Otherwise, he might bug me with questions at work about why Myra nor I didn't tell him about how I proposed and all. Guess he does have the right to know though considering he helped me and all._

"Sebastian!" He heard someone call out his name. He knew it couldn't be Joseph because the guy still called him by his last name and Myra didn't sound that way. Maybe Connelly? He huffed softly and glanced back at the journal.

 _They are really getting antsy. I'll write later._

He placed his pen down and headed towards the bedroom door. On the way there, he looked at himself in the mirror. Blue collared long-sleeved shirt with a black tie around his neck. A clean shaved face per Myra's request. Black dress slacks and black dress shoes. Funny how his attire for work happened to be the dressiest outfit he had. Oh well.

After making sure his clothes didn't look wrinkled and his tie appeared straight, he left the bedroom and shut the door behind him. "There you are!" Yep, it had to be Connelly that was calling for him earlier. The voice sounded exactly like the one earlier now that he didn't have to hear it through the wall. "Myra is waiting for you!"

Sebastian nodded with a grin on his face. "And I wouldn't want to keep the hottest woman around waiting." The grin slipped into a smirk as he headed over towards Myra. On the way to her, he bumped into Joseph. "You really should stop trying to pretend to be a statue. Does not work for you." He joked as Joseph rolled his eyes.

"Very funny." Joseph adjusted his glasses with a faint scowl. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something real quick."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at him. "Fire away. Don't want to keep the lady waiting."

Joseph nodded and leaned over to where he could whisper into Sebastian's ear. "Does this have anything to do with you wishing to propose to her? I swore I saw the ring you showed me on her hand when I first arrived at the party."

Why couldn't Joseph not be observant for a day? Sebastian took a deep breath and nodded. Luckily, he didn't have to elaborate. For after nodding, Joseph backed away from him and smiled faintly. This time, the smile lasted long enough for him to notice how Joseph's eyes lit up when he smiled. But, the smile disappeared before he could tell if he liked that or not.

"Good luck." Those two words lingered in his mind as Joseph walked away. Sebastian mouthed a 'thank you' to him. However, he was pretty sure Joseph didn't see it amongst the crowd. He headed over towards Myra now and stood by her side.

"What took you so long?" Her voice held no annoyance. Nothing but a hint of playfulness that showed in the brightness of her eyes.

"Just giving into the urge to chit-chat." Sebastian leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "Now, let's get this over with so we can get these people out of here." He smirked as he leaned by her ear. "Because I so want to have some private party time with you."

He laughed softly at her gently slapping his arm. "Of course, you would." She smiled up at him before her expression became impassive once more. Stone cold Myra some called her. He knew better than to believe her heart was nothing but ice. Not after living with her for more than a few months (and working with her about a year before that) and seeing her various smiles, smirks, glares, and other signs of emotion.

"Everyone!" Myra yelled out to get the party goers to be quiet. "We will now make the announcement." She gripped Sebastian's hand with the hand that had the ring on it. She lifted both of their hands up into the air with a faint hint of a smile on her face. "We are engaged."

Sebastian heard the various shouts. But, his eyes ended up locked with Joseph's who stood towards the back of the room. If it hadn't been for those glasses, Joseph might have honestly blended in too well with the crowd. He swore Joseph might have given a thumbs up to him. But, it was more likely a wave since he had never imagined Joseph to give into such "silly" gestures. Nether the less, seeing his new partner while happily marrying his previous felt kind of surreal to him.

Myra could have easily stayed his partner and he never would have gotten to know Joseph. Instead, he took a leap that day in March. Now, he could say he had the life he wanted and he couldn't hope for anything better.


	9. July 14th, 2005

_July 14_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _Why the hell do people put such effort into weddings again? Why couldn't me and Myra just go to Vegas and do one of those cliché Vegas weddings? Apparently, she doesn't like that idea. I wish she did honestly. I mean, am I only one that just can't figure out why a wedding can't take place out in some random field we wouldn't have to pay for with decorations and food that we make or have others bring? What is wrong with that? Maybe I'm just feeling this way because I must go tux shopping…. ugh…. hate tuxedos._

Sebastian walked the streets of downtown Krimson City. He was not going to be one of those people that left the city to purchase a tux. But, that didn't make it any easier. He saw many fancier stores that seemed tailored to those with loose change eating their pockets. After how he had been raised, he couldn't bring himself to be one of those people. Yet, he might honestly have to go into one of these places for all he knew. He didn't want to show up with a crappy tux either. Damn was shopping a bitch for him.

He rested his hands in his pockets, feeling the urge to smoke at the back of his mind. His teeth bit slightly into the inside of his bottom lip. Rubbing the skin between his teeth, he found himself at the corner of a street. At this part of downtown, multiple stores held their homes at the four corners of the intersection. He glanced about to see one of the shops happened to be a tuxedo shop, or more like an all-around suit shop.

His eyebrows furrowed as he continued to stand there. His body stiffened when he felt his phone vibrate against his hand. He huffed loudly before taking out his phone and seeing Joseph's caller id. "Hello." He crossed his free arm over his chest. "What's up?" He added on before faintly shrugging.

"Myra said you were tuxedo shopping?" He heard his partner ask over the phone. "She mentioned you might need help."

Sebastian bit back the sigh of relief. Joseph seemed like he would know more about this stuff than he did. He paid more attention to how something looked on him than how others perceived his fashion or if the brand name was good or not. From how his partner always acted more fashion conscious, he figured Joseph would be a major help.

"She looked up some shops that we can check out and I have looked into some as well." Sebastian heard Joseph explain as Sebastian decided to walk into a café nearby. Just a place to linger in to keep out of the summer heat. "I believe considering neither of you are huge spenders, I recommended a shop actually on the outskirts of Krimson City in the suburbs to Myra. It looks like it has the best selection yet also the best prices for your two's budget."

Wait, why did Joseph recommend the shop to Myra? Wasn't he the one needing to buy and try on the tuxedo? Sebastian rolled his eyes and scowled a bit. "Joseph, since when did you and Myra become the ones in charge?" He sat down at a table by the window of the café. "I appreciate the help. But, geez. Shouldn't I have been involved _before_ I ended up walking around downtown like a moron?"

Oh, hearing Joseph hold back a snicker caused him to grit his teeth. He took a couple of deep breaths to keep himself calm. "That was not our fault you wanted to go on without any idea of what you were doing." Joseph remarked back with a bit of amusement still in his tone. "Besides, it allowed you to get some exercise."

Sebastian scoffed and now rested his chin against his hand. "So, what's the plan then? I meet you at the store or something? Or am I supposed to go there myself?" He figured he might as well go along with it. If only to save himself the pain in the ass time of continuing to walk around blind.

"We'll set up a time to meet at the store. The place apparently has appointments we can make. Having a tailor helping us find a tuxedo that fits you well would be beneficial. So, you can just relax and do whatever you want, Castellanos." Joseph explained over the phone.

"Wait, you're saying I _really_ wasted my time?" Sebastian raised his voice. He glanced over to see multiple people looking over at him. He did his best to play off the incident by looking towards the window and looking away from the other people in the café.

Now he could hear Joseph laughing on the other end of the phone. Sebastian gritted his teeth again to keep himself from bursting out loudly again. "Yes, exactly." Joseph told him after calming himself. "But, like I said, you got some exercise in and got more familiar with downtown outside of the context of work." Joseph continued, Sebastian imagining a faint hint of a smirk on his face. "And I'll make sure it won't happen next time."

Sebastian got up from the table and left the café. He wasn't in the mood for eating. "Fine. I'll figure out something to do in the meantime. Thanks for the help again." Sebastian tried to sound pleasant instead of annoyed. He heard Joseph say you're welcome on the other end before the two said their farewells and hung up.

As Sebastian stood outside the café again, he groaned softly to himself. "Ugh. So much for impressing Myra with coming home with a tuxedo on the first trip." Myra had made it clear he likely wouldn't be able to do that. He needed to keep his options open and not narrow himself down so quickly. Guess Myra had been right for now. And since he wasn't going to be coming home with a tuxedo today, he might as well come home with some food for him and Myra to eat.

He went back into the café and hoped they would have take out. Luckily, he saw an option for that and figured he could please Myra with some food. At least he got something done today. Being the man of the house so to speak and bringing home the bacon. Better than coming home with nothing at all and a Myra smirking at him with a "I told you so" look on her face.


	10. July 20th, 2005

_July 20_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _The day me and Joseph go out and try and get me a tuxedo. Good luck to me._

Sebastian stretched his arms over his head. "So, this is the place?" He glanced over at Joseph, who he saw nodding at him.

"Yes, it is one of those Warehouse stores where there is more than just tuxedos." Joseph walked on ahead of him into the store. "I guess some people don't know about it because it is on the edges of the city." He shrugged softly. "But, it should do for what we need it for. The tailor should be waiting inside."

Sebastian followed him, soon walking by his side. He looked about at the various offerings of clothing and the other customers looking for whatever they needed. It would have been nice if he didn't potentially have an audience. No way did he want someone he knew (besides non-gossiping Joseph here) going around saying how Castellanos looked stupid in some pink suit. At least he hoped Joseph wouldn't put him in something weird like that.

Joseph pointed briefly towards a man in a dress shirt with dress pants. Sebastian noted the man had the decency not to look like some old butler from a rich family. Instead, the man stood there with relaxed shoulders and a black tie matching his dress pants. "That is the tailor." Joseph said. But, Sebastian had figured it out. He just kept that smart-ass remark to himself.

"You two are the 6-o clock appointment?" The tailor asked with a hint of politeness in his tone.

"Yes, that would be us." Joseph answered for the both. The tailor nodded and turned away from them briefly.

"So that means you…." The tailor pointed at Sebastian. "are the groom?" Sebastian nodded and the tailor nodded himself. "And you are…the person accompanying him?" The tailor noticed Joseph nod as well. "Good. I wanted to make sure I had the descriptions written down right." The man took out a notepad that Sebastian noticed had not only notes but little drawings on them. "I have some suits already picked out based on the budget and measurements mentioned. Hopefully one of them will work."

Sebastian noticed Joseph had a faint smile on his face. Of course, Joseph would love being around someone as prepared as himself. "We will see." Sebastian added quickly before Joseph could say anything. He did not want to set his mind on something just yet. Not if he was going to regret his choice right after buying the tuxedo.

The tailor chuckled faintly. "Nothing wrong with that. It simply means you are not impulsive." Oh, how wrong the tailor was about that. "Now here we are. The dressing room is right there and the mirror where you will stand in front of is right here." The tailor directed them by pointing. "Whenever you a ready, let us try this one on first."

Sebastian looked over to see a classic black and white tuxedo with a bowtie. He bit back his comment and only nodded to show he heard. Slowly, he walked over and grabbed the outfit from off the hanger. He walked into the dressing room and shut the door behind him. After locking the door, he stared at the tuxedo in his hands. "Why does it look so shitty to me?" He muttered to himself before hanging the tuxedo so he could get undressed and all.

Maybe it had to do with how silly the bowtie looked? He would rather wear a simple tie than the little silly bow. The dress shirt underneath it had lines along the fabric, giving it that overly fancy look he didn't care for. Why couldn't it be a regular white dress shirt without all the designs to the fabric itself? He shook his head and reluctantly put on the outfit. The tailor better not be making him try on more of these kinds of suits.

He walked out of the dressing room once dressed and moved to stand in front of the mirror. He saw Joseph and the tailor stand somewhere behind him. He made himself stare on ahead and try to not look at their gazes. "So…how does it feel to you?" The tailor asked after a minute of silence. Sebastian only noticed then that he himself had been scowling.

"It fits well, but I don't like this kind of look. I know I need a fancier suit like a tuxedo. But, do I have to look like a butler?" Old fashioned or not, he could never be a fan of looking like a damn butler.

The tailor smiled slightly as if amused. "I think I know ways to update the look a bit." Sebastian raised an eyebrow as the tailor walked away.

"Really Castellanos? It looks fine." Sebastian looked over at Joseph saying that.

"Uh, no. It isn't. I am not going to be caught dead in this at the wedding. Fuck that." Sebastian glared and didn't care that Joseph rolled his eyes. He was not going to listen to stupid advice like that!

"Here." Sebastian stiffened at hearing the tailor. He figured the man would take his sweet ass time. "Some people really do not like the older aspects of tuxedos. Why don't you try it on while changing what you do not like? These shirts and various ties should still compliment the pants and suit jacket." The tailor handed Sebastian multiple shirts on hangers and ties on other hangers. "You may take your time on the mix-matching."

Sebastian smirked at bit at the varying colors and styles of the shirts and ties. "Sounds good to me." He said before walking over quickly to the dressing room. After a few minutes, Sebastian came out with a black tie instead of a bowtie and a dress shirt that looked just a bit dressier than his usual dress shirt. Only because the shirt he currently wore did not have the wrinkles and others marks from use.

"Well, now I think this is in the right direction." Sebastian said with a larger smirk on his face. However, the smirk faded at Joseph's glare. "What?"

Joseph huffed softly. "You looked like you added a fancy jacket to your usual attire is all. For all I know, you would actually go to work in that and I just don't think that's going to work." Joseph crossed his arms over his chest. "And besides, I think there are still plenty of other options you haven't considered yet."

Sebastian glared back now and scowled. "But, come on! It would mean less trying on clothes and shopping." He didn't absolutely hate doing such things. He just imagined doing more than spending hours trying on various outfits and so forth.

"Rarely does one get it right on the first try." The tailor inputted with a faint smile. "I still have the other options for you to try on."

Sebastian groaned softly. "Fine." He walked right back into the dressing room to get changed back into his regular outfit. That way, he wouldn't be standing in the outfit any longer.

So much for this being easy.

He walked out of the dressing room and the tailor had pulled a rack of other suits that the man had picked out. "Here are your other options."

Sebastian paled at some of the choices. Some of the tuxedos looked more outlandish than the last one. He noticed Joseph look a little too amused at his reaction.

Yeah, so much for getting a tuxedo being easy. Nether the less, he pushed back his annoyance and made himself go on with the shopping. Because there was no way he was going to be coming home with nothing at all.

"So, nothing huh?" He heard Myra asked as he walked into their apartment.

"Yes, nothing. Now if you excuse me, I need a smoke bad." He scowled as he went out onto the balcony to smoke a cigarette. None of the other choices had worked and there was no way he was going to force himself into something he didn't like.

Just why did getting the right outfit have to be a pain in the ass? At least he didn't have to think about it as he felt the nicotine hitting his brain and soon even felt arms around him from behind. "Just don't take too long out here. I think we both deserve a break, don't you think?"

Okay, maybe today hadn't been an absolute failure after all. "Sounds good to me, Myra." He purred slightly before chuckling. Because anytime he could be with his wife like _that_ made shit so much better.

Just next time? He was not going to take picky ass Joseph along. He learned his lesson after Joseph kept rejecting the choices and getting him so pissed that he walked out of the store. Oh well. Guess he had to find out some way that Joseph Oda was an annoying little bastard to shop with. Even if that did mean another trip to find a tuxedo was in order. Ugh.


	11. July 30th, 2005

_July 30_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _So, Joseph wanted me to meet him after work at some Japanese restaurant. Wonder what he wants to talk about?_

He stood in front of the restaurant and stared up at the sign. _Nagasaki_. The name felt slightly familiar to him. He couldn't put his finger on why the name felt familiar. For now, he put the curiosity aside and entered the place. Joseph had described it as a Japanese restaurant where there was an option of the cooks preparing the food right in front of them. While he couldn't say he was a huge Japanese food lover, he did like the idea of seeing food prepared in such a manner at least once.

Joseph waved at him from the entrance. "Come in."

Sebastian heard Joseph and headed towards where he was. "You already have seats for us?" Joseph tended to be prepared as early and as thorough as he could.

"Yes, it's over here." Joseph pointed to some seats that sat in front of a black table top. As they headed closer, Sebastian realized the black table top was the grill. He noticed about a counter sized eating area around three sides of the grill. The one side that didn't have a counter had to be where the cook had to stand. He sat at one of the chairs that at least had a back to it. He thought he would be sitting on a barstool.

Joseph sat next to him and pointed at the menus. "I have already figured out what I want. You should figure out what you want."

Sebastian nodded and grabbed one of the menus. He glanced over the menu, noticing items that he knew of like sushi. "You recommend anything?" It would be the first time he ate with someone that tended to eat Japanese cuisine.

"Well, if you like sushi, I would say white fish sushi is good. If you don't like that, I would say any of the menu items under the hibachi dinner part of the menu. After all, that is what this is." Joseph gestured towards the grill. "That is called a hibachi grill and the hibachi dinner usually comes with a salad, vegetable medley, and steamed rice and fried noodles. By the looks of it, this restaurant follows the other ones that offer hibachi dinners."

Sebastian blinked and glanced back down at the menu. Huh. Joseph wasn't bluffing him. It seemed a hibachi dinner did come with all those things. "Damn, I might as well just go with uh…chicken under that." He would go with something else, but damn was the prices high. While the filet mignon sounded so good, he wasn't willing to throw down thirty something bucks on a meal for him alone.

"That's not a bad choice. I'll be going for the salmon myself." Joseph mentioned before the waiter came over and asked them what they wanted. After both gave their order, the waiter took the menus from them and left them both to sit there. "It shouldn't be long before they come out and prepare parts of the meal."

"Wait, parts?" Sebastian raised an eyebrow and Joseph shrugged.

"Yes, the meats are prepared on the grill as well as the noodles. But, the soup and salad can't for obvious reasons and the steamed rice isn't either." Joseph looked over at Sebastian. "Did you think they actually prepared everything on the grill?"

Sebastian's cheeks faintly reddened before looking away. "Maybe." He whispered softly to keep Joseph from hearing. Nether the less, when he looked back over, he swore he noticed a faint smirk on Joseph's face.

"Well, you could have assumed worse. You could have assumed the grill instantly made the food or something like that." Joseph sounded like he might have been trying to jest. Sebastian couldn't tell for sure. "Anyway, I know you must be curious about why I asked you to come here." Sebastian nodded to Joseph's intuitive comment. "It is about the wedding preparations and all of that."

Sebastian groaned softly and rested his head on the counter. "Really? I wish you had said it was about you wanting to get some or something." He flinched at feeling Joseph slap him upside the head. "I still am wishing that."

Joseph huffed loudly as he noticed the cook coming over. "One, I am not desiring to get some. Two, apparently you two keep butting heads so I've been put in charge of being the mediator so to speak. And three, we can always wait until we eat if we must."

"Thank you." Sebastian said with a faint grin on his face. "Hate talking about this kind of stuff on an empty stomach." He sat up at hearing the grill starting up. He sat up and watched the chief prepare their food before them. The chief made it look like an art with the way the man could easily switch between the meats and noodles with ease. If he had been doing the same, he knew something would be burning. Likely the noodles since he would need to make sure the meat was done.

As the chief continued, Joseph looked over at Sebastian. "Why is it that you don't want to talk about it? Are you stressed out? Are you nervous?" Joseph asked with a bit of bluntness to his tone. "You can't avoid it since you two seem so set on marrying so soon."

Sebastian huffed softly and looked over at Joseph. "I know. I just had no idea it would require this much just to have a normal wedding. Looking for locations, finding how to get food, inviting people. Hell. I haven't even gotten to the décor, the reception, the honeymoon. Ugh." He rubbed at his temples, glad to at least see the food starting to be put on his plate. "It's stressing me out and I sometimes just want to…I don't know…not think about it for a bit."

He took some of the food and put it into his mouth. Damn did the chicken taste good. Unfortunately, he still found himself frowning. "Does that make me a shitty person? I want to have this wedding be good and all. But, I need time outside of work to relax and not think about all the things on my plate. Like can't we just eat and talk about stupid stuff for a bit as if we aren't detectives and one of us isn't trying to get married in a few months?" He asked while looking at Joseph now.

Joseph furrowed his eyebrows. The two sat there silently even though they did eat in the meantime. At some point, Joseph put down his fork and sighed softly. "I am someone that always wants to get things done. I cannot relax until I know everything is done or that I've done all I've can." Joseph frowned slightly. "I cannot imagine just taking a break like you are suggesting." His frown relaxed as he placed a hand on Sebastian's shoulder. "But, it isn't the first time I've been told that I need to learn to relax more."

Sebastian smiled slightly at him. "Thanks for understanding." When Joseph removed his hand, Sebastian's eyes briefly widened. Wait, Joseph had willingly touched him? He shook his head when he noticed Joseph rubbing at his hands as if trying to wash them through his gloves. Maybe that had been a spur of the moment thing on Joseph's part and even Joseph hadn't thought about it. For that reason, he decided not to point it out.

"Now, let's enjoy the food, shall we? Maybe you can actually tell me an interesting story about your life." Sebastian said with his smile growing a bit more.

"Ha ha. Life doesn't always have to be some crazy adventure." Joseph shook his head while stirring his salad. "Alright though. Let's try."

Sebastian kept on smiling as he now focused on his meal. Maybe tomorrow he would be ready to talk about it. For now, he enjoyed his hibachi dinner with Mr. Oda.


	12. August 8th, 2005

_August 8_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _Myra keeps reminding me there are still things needing to be done for the wedding. One dilemma has been finding a best man. While Myra has a lot of potential maids of honor apparently, I…do not. I would literally have to pick one of my co-workers. I have been contemplating who, but I am not sure he would want to do such a thing. Better ask sooner rather than later though or else Myra will bitch at me about not taking the marriage seriously…again._

"Joseph?" Sebastian said the name lowly. Only because they were not alone in the break room. His partner still hadn't gotten to the point of letting others call him by his first name yet.

Joseph briefly glared at him before relaxing his gaze and raising an eyebrow. "Yes? What is it? It must be important if you are calling me that at work."

His partner hadn't been wrong on that one. "Yeah, are you free later? I need to talk to you about something important. Just doesn't feel right bringing it up here." No way did he want to let their co-workers know of his current issue.

Joseph looked at him with furrowed eyebrows before nodding. "Yes, I am. We can go somewhere or walk about the streets if you like."

Sebastian tilted his head while tapping his chin. "Uh...maybe walking would be fine. Don't feel like going anywhere." Just as long as they were not here it would be fine. At least, he thought so. "Just need to get it off my chest."

The two looked at each other and Sebastian noticed the quizzical look on Joseph's face. His partner probably wondered why he wasn't bringing up the issue with Myra. It wasn't that Myra didn't know the issue. She just couldn't play two separate roles at her own wedding. And who the hell had heard of a bride being the best man as well? No one. He didn't want to make his wedding the first.

"Right…I'll meet you in the parking lot later." Sebastian nodded to what Joseph said and watched his partner leave the break room. The time between now and the time they got off should give him time to figure out how to breech the subject.

He just hoped he wouldn't really fuck it up.

Joseph stood where Sebastian had expected. Right next to Joseph's black Lexus Sedan. He thought it was somewhere in the early 2010's. But, he couldn't be for sure. He still tried his best to keep his 1980 Cadillac Eldorado running and knew more about the older cars than the newer ones as a result.

"Glad you showed up." Sebastian stood in front of the hood where Joseph stood. "You always have to have the latest things though huh?" He pointed towards the Sedan and snickered. Joseph glared at him with his eyes narrowing.

"It is not the latest model of Sedan no. But, it is much newer than your car." Joseph scowled when looking at Sebastian's car. Sebastian shook head and chuckled at that.

"You just don't have good tastes." Sebastian swore he heard Joseph mutter it was _he_ that didn't have the good tastes. Since he wasn't sure though, he decided not to ask. Besides, now was not the best time to get into a bitch fight with Joseph.

"Anyway! I guess since I don't see anyone nearby…." Sebastian looked over his shoulder to still see no signs of anyone else having come near them yet. "I can ask you here." He took a deep breath and turned his head to look at Joseph again. His partner raised an eyebrow and Sebastian let out the breath he took in.

"I am needing a best man for the wedding." He got straight to the point and outstretched his hand towards Joseph. "You're probably the best choice I've got right now since Myra actually likes you and all."

He kept the hand there as Joseph still had his eyebrow raised. Sebastian noticed his partner look back and forth between the hand and his face. "Um…this does not feel right." Joseph admitted with a faint frown. "Usually a best man is someone that has been an irreplaceable person in your life or someone you have known a long time. At least, from my understanding." Joseph kept on with the frown growing. "We have only known each other a few months. Wouldn't Connelly be better or anyone else really?"

Sebastian lowered his hand and shrugged. "I had considered Connelly, but he isn't much for getting dressed. Myra would kill me if I let my best man come in his work uniform." He smirked briefly at the idea. But, man would the honeymoon start off bad if he allowed that. "I'm not really close to anyone else." He glanced off to the side. "So, it's not that I don't know how weird it is to ask this of you. But, I don't have much other options that would please me and Myra."

Once again, he lifted his hand up. He did his best to smile instead of smirk or frown. "Besides, it might get you a chance to catch the bouquet and get you a chance at someone."

Joseph scoffed at that and frowned. "Castellanos. I do not need anyone like that." He reaffirmed for who knows how many times now. "And…you know how bad that sounds? That you don't have any other choices?" Joseph's frown remained as he fidgeted with one of his hands. "I know it is none of my business truly why that is the case…but, I just hope you don't regret your choice because of your circumstances."

Sebastian felt Joseph grip his hand and the two shook hands. "Naw, I wouldn't have asked if I thought I would regret it." He grinned before letting go of the hand. "Thanks for this. I owe you one." Sebastian waved and headed over towards his car.

Joseph watched his partner and then looked down at his hand. He clenched the hand before sighing faintly. "Maybe I should say I hope I don't regret getting more dragged into this." It wasn't like him to get caught up in other's affairs. He had tended to keep to himself for long. Now, in just a few months of being in Krimson City, he had become the best man of his partner's wedding. So much so fast. He should pull back, and yet for some reason?

As he unclenched his hand and got into his car, he realized he didn't want to. And that fact alone scared him the most as he drove home, hoping for some normalcy in this trying time for him. Anything to feel like himself again.


	13. August 26th, 2005

_August 26_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _Just having to stay focused on the wedding next month. Myra doesn't mind us having a bachelor and bachelorette party respectively. But, I don't know how to play a damn party. I mean, couldn't I just invite some people to a bar and call it a day? I guess a strip club wouldn't be bad. Would Myra like that though? Fuck. Why must shit be difficult? At least I am having some help planning it. Hopefully, I get somewhere with this._

He sat down on the leather couch. Leather wasn't his favorite material. But surprisingly enough, the couch wasn't ultra-stiff. It had some give way to it, allowing him to relax his body. He needed to try and relax the best he could. Because if he had any feeling about this, he would be tensing up a lot soon enough.

"So…how are we doing this again?" Sebastian asked with a raised eyebrow. He glanced over to see Joseph standing in an open kitchen with a bar counter. His partner still worked on fixing both of them some food. Something Japanese cuisine according to Joseph. Joseph looked up at him briefly, but then shrugged. Sebastian rolled his eyes at Joseph waving his hand, clearly telling him he would have to wait for an answer.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes briefly as well. "Come on. I am not going back to the apartment empty handed for another time." He hated his luck when it came to the marriage preparations. While Myra had such insane luck in getting her tasks done within the first or second time, everything for him took multiple times. Wasn't it supposed to be the woman that had more problems with this shit?

Joseph huffed loudly while putting some teriyaki sauce on the food. "You won't. Not like you can go back for a few days anyways, right?" Joseph asked with a faint hint of confusion. "Something about the bachelorette party and all?"

Oh, like he needed to hear about that again. Myra had wanted to be cost-effective. So, she decided her bachelorette party should take place at their apartment for the most part. A girl's only weekend. That meant he had to find some place to stay in the meantime. Even if Joseph had been reluctant, Sebastian appreciated not finding himself having to be homeless for three fucking days. Shit.

"Yeah." He spoke curtly before huffing. "Just would be shitty if I came back home Monday with nothing to show for it." He leaned forward and rested his head on his hands. Clasping his hands beneath his chin, he closed his eyes. The smell of the chicken teriyaki wafted across his nostrils. He breathed in the smell and smiled faintly. Joseph knew how to fix food. The food gave him peace of mind for now.

Only when the smell became quite strong did he open his eyes. The plate of chicken teriyaki sat in front of him now. "Damn. That was quick." He heard Joseph chuckle faintly nearby him. Turning his head, he saw Joseph sit at the other end of the couch.

"I just know how to fix that easily." Joseph explained with a faint smile. "Nothing to it in my mind."

Sebastian nodded and gripped the fork placed beside him. Joseph had set up a temporary table in front of the couch. For some reason, Joseph did not want Sebastian dining at his actual dining table. Must have something to do with Joseph's quirks. Like how Joseph insisted on him not walking about the apartment with his shoes on. Nether the less, the temporary table kept him from having to get off the couch. So, no complaining from him on the matter.

"Right." Sebastian said with a hint of skepticism as he started on eating the chicken teriyaki. He had to admit the contrast of sweet and sour wasn't bad. He was more used to spicy than something that reminded him of the combination of salt and sugar. But, the taste did not make him recoil from the food. He kept on eating as Joseph ate as well.

If he didn't know any better, he might describe the moment as even more relaxing than the time they ate at the Japanese restaurant. Because for once, he didn't feel pressure from Joseph about the wedding. Instead, he felt like they were having some strange form of a boy's only weekend with a nice dinner. None of that take-out stuff.

A faint smile graced his lips. When was the last time he had experienced such with anyone outside of Myra? Maybe Connelly the one time the guy invited him over to his place. But, hadn't that been a few years ago? At least, it felt that way.

"Do you normally fix dinner for your guests?" Sebastian blurted out. "Seems like a bit of effort just to be hospitable. Take out really would have been fine." He mentioned before raising an eyebrow. Joseph had placed his fork down and Sebastian noticed the faint frown on Joseph's face. Had he said something accidently offensive again? Man, he sucked at that.

Sebastian kept an eye on Joseph as his partner eventually turned his head to look at him. "I…rarely have people over." Joseph admitted, the frown still on his face. "You're the first I've had over to this place actually." Joseph glanced away at seeing Sebastian's eyes widen briefly. "Is it really that surprising? I'm not the most social person around and... most can't deal with my quirks." Even now, he tried to keep his mind from swirling with how Sebastian could be dirtying up his apartment.

It had never been easy to deal with such obsessive thoughts. But, he functioned well enough. If anything, the way his mind worked helped him a lot of times on cases. Made him pay attention to details others missed. Only now when he saw Sebastian's reaction did he briefly question if it was such a good thing.

"So, I figured if you needed a place to stay that was not going to be some dump, I would take it as a chance to practice being a hospitable host." At least, that was what he told himself. It was better to say that than say maybe he had one of those moments of loneliness that felt consuming. And coincidentally, he could fulfill that this weekend without the use of sake or watching Japanese movies or both. "Besides, gives me a chance to brush up on my cooking."

Joseph hated how silent Sebastian had become. The man normally responded quickly. When Sebastian didn't, he came to recognize it as Sebastian honestly having no idea what to say or being deep in thought. Well, besides the time he could tell Sebastian was avoiding the question. Funny how it was so easy to refer to the man in his head as Sebastian yet still unable to say his partner's first name out loud. He was still struggling with letting his guard down.

"…I appreciate you doing this, really." Joseph heard Sebastian finally say. "You didn't have to. It must be making you uncomfortable." Joseph swallowed at Sebastian's knowing gaze. "But really, you've done a lot for me when it comes to the wedding and even you just letting me stay at your place….it means a lot."

Sebastian smiled warmly and Joseph felt a bit quite off guard, causing him to look away. "So, thanks Joseph. Just…let me know what I can to make this easier if you would? I am an ass, but I'm not going to purposefully make you miserable. Not…like this."

Joseph kept looking away. He didn't dare meet Sebastian's gaze. Not right now. He heard Sebastian go back to eating and he did the same. He needed the time to process the words. It was not every day he heard Sebastian speak so warmly let alone so genuinely about less 'tough feelings'. He could count on one hand how many times he heard Sebastian speak in such a way.

Sebastian kept on eating, figuring he would drop the conversation for now. Maybe he had spoken too much again. He repressed the urge to sigh as he noticed he was almost done with the food. Hopefully, Joseph had seconds.

"…Thank you for your consideration." Sebastian looked over to see Joseph looking at him. For the first time, the smile on Joseph's smile didn't look faint or like it would disappear in a heartbeat. "Sebastian."

Joseph spoke his first name so quickly that Sebastian almost hadn't caught it. His eyes widened as Joseph quickly looked away back to his food. Sebastian opened his mouth, but closed it right after. If he said anything, it might break the moment. Make Joseph regret it. He nodded in hopes Joseph would see the acknowledgement out of the corner of his eye.

Maybe a boy's only weekend was something they both needed. For all he knew, maybe this was the best way to spend a bachelor's party. Just some quiet time with someone he considered a friend. He would keep that idea to himself for now. Simply to give Joseph some time to compose himself again since composure seemed so important to Joseph.

When they both were ready, he would bring up the suggestion of doing something like this closer to the wedding. No craziness. A simple eating dinner with friendly conversation. Something that he was sure they both could get behind.


	14. September 10th, 2005

_September 10_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _Seven days until I am married to Myra Hanson. To think time has flown by so past. Everything is in place that I know of. We've been doing rehearsals any of the days that me and Myra were both off. Any last-minute preparations were done when we could do them, whether together or on our own. All I could do now was relax the best I could and get through yet another weekend at work._

He turned himself in his chair while looking up at the ceiling. Within the next two hours, he and Joseph were supposed to go out to the outskirts of Krimson City to talk to some witnesses. Another missing person's case. It wasn't the first nor last time someone went missing in Krimson City and the suburbs outlying the downtown area. Let alone in the villages on the edges of the county. But, since working as a detective, he hadn't had two missing person's cases within the same area. While he hoped it was just a coincidence, he knew better.

People did not just keep disappearing in same part of the county for no apparent reason.

As he kept turning himself in his chair, he caught sight of someone coming towards him. The circular motion made the person appear a bit of a blur to him. While he could have immediately stopped, he knew he would regret that. He hated the light headed discombobulated feeling that resulted from doing that.

"Having fun there?" The voice sounded only half-amused. A bit annoyed too probably if he had to be honest.

Sebastian huffed and finally slowed down enough to where his head wouldn't feel like it was swimming inside of his skull. "Not really. Just bored." He smirked slightly before standing up from the chair. "So, you found anything yet?"

Joseph shrugged while opening his notebook. "Just a few details here and there." Joseph flipped through the pages to wherever he had written notes. "Apparently, Mr. Taylor reported his brother missing, that visited the Elk River Village, after not returning some days after his brother said he would. Mr. Taylor said his brother is not the type to disappear without notice." Joseph explained while faintly sighing. "Unfortunately, we've already come across a problem."

"Uh, what problem?" Sebastian quickly asked with a raised eyebrow. How had they already run into a problem?

"The same problem as last time. The villagers are either too afraid or too paranoid to readily talk." Joseph adjusted his glasses a bit. "Even though this time around Mr. Taylor had pointed out potential witnesses for us to talk to, the cops have just reported to us that we cannot find those witnesses anymore." Joseph furrowed his eyebrows with a frown on his face. "It's like last time all over again."

Sebastian nodded with a scowl on his face. "I'm starting to think the villagers are covering for someone. But who?" It wouldn't be easy for either of them to figure out. The few times anyone had been able to talk to the villagers, they might as well have been talking to stone walls. Sebastian heard the villagers answered questions curtly and purposefully without any detail. Enough to be minimally cooperative and nothing more.

The two looked at each other before Joseph looked back at his notebook. "Unfortunately, we don't have enough clues to know what is really going on. We can only speculate." Joseph remarked with his gaze not moving off the notebook. "We just have to find other avenues to travel down."

Just what avenue would that be? Sebastian sighed softly. "Right. Sounds like that's our only choice." Sebastian glanced at his computer and turned to face it. "Maybe we got to look to see if the two missing people have anything in common." He dared to sit down in front of the computer to use it. Not to just let the device collect dust or play games on it. He just was not really computer literate like Joseph.

"Sounds like a plan." Joseph moved away to sit at his own desk. "Though, I think Myra wanted to see you when you could."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Huh? She did? About what?" He looked over at Joseph.

"Something about wanting to make sure you were okay and all. I'm assuming she's making sure you aren't getting nervous." Sebastian swore he noticed a faint smirk on Joseph's face. It didn't help the tone sounded a bit jesting. He rolled his eyes and stood up from the desk. Of course, he didn't even get a chance to do much with the computer. Maybe he was doomed to always be somewhat computer illiterate.

He walked over to Joseph and flicked him on the back of his head. "Un-huh. Like I would be nervous." And even if he was, he wasn't going to admit it. "I'll go check up on her really quick. I'll be back in a little bit." He smirked at Joseph glaring at him and straightening out his hair. Seriously the guy needed to relax on his appearance.

As he went to walk away, he heard Joseph's chair turn. "Hey, before you go." Sebastian turned to face Joseph at hearing Joseph. "Here." Sebastian blinked at seeing a small box wrapped up in a bow. "I wasn't sure if we would have time to actually have that bachelor's party. So, open that on the night before the wedding. It's my present to send you off to married life."

Sebastian chuckled and gripped the box. "Thanks Jo-" He cut himself off and sheepishly smiled. "Oda."

Joseph huffed softly. "I guess at some point I really should let up on that huh?"

"Only when you are ready." Sebastian smiled, stopping himself from going over and ruffling his hair. "See you in a bit."

Joseph nodded and turned back towards his desk. Sebastian walked out of the office area, his eyes looking down at the box. While he felt the temptation to open the box, he slipped the box into his pocket and headed towards Myra's department. Guess he could make himself wait a little while longer to figure out what Joseph had given him. For now, he had a future wife to check in on.


	15. September 17th, 2005

September 17, 2005

 _I don't think I will have a lot of time to write in here for the next couple of weeks. Today I am marrying the love of my life. After that, we will be on our honeymoon and no way in hell would I be wanting to take any time away from her. Got to make sure she knows how hot and amazing I find her and how grateful I am she allowed me to be her husband. But, I felt I should write something in here before I go off and get married. Just in case I want to relive this memory years from now._

Sebastian tapped his pen against his chin. As he sat at the desk in his apartment, tux on and tie all ready to go, he furrowed his eyebrows. He could hear the ruckus of Joseph and the others about the apartment trying to get last minute things done. To him, journal writing happened to be his last-minute task.

His eyes narrowed at the entry he had written so far. It honestly lacked something to him, but what? He tapped the ball of the pen now against the journal page. The rhythmic tapping didn't help. But, at least the noise distracted him from the quickened heartbeat and the slight sweat he felt forming on his body. To think he would be experiencing such on the day of the ceremony. He thought he would be over his nerves by now.

A soft sigh escaped his lips as he heard the door open. Shit. Was it time to leave already? He looked over to see Joseph peeking into the room. "You ready? We will be leaving in a few minutes."

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah. Just trying to figure out something really quick." He said before turning back towards the journal. He heard the door shut behind him. However, as he twirled the pen between his fingers, he tensed up at noticing someone standing to his right. He quickly glanced up to see Joseph. Well, fuck.

"You do journal writing?" Sebastian huffed at hearing Joseph ask that. At least Joseph didn't sound judging about it. But, his cheeks still faintly reddened at being caught doing this.

"Yes." He answered quickly while leaning over to try and hide the journal from sight. Just anything to keep Joseph from being able to read the words.

Joseph shrugged softly and turned away from Sebastian. "I am not going to look." He said in some attempt to keep Sebastian from looking like some territorial animal getting angered at territory invasion. "But, did you want any help there? Not like you can sit there all day. You got a marriage ceremony to attend that you are the groom of I might add."

Sebastian leaned back and relaxed a tad bit. "I…want to make sure this entry is special." He looked up at Joseph. "I don't know how to do that."

He noticed Joseph furrow his eyebrows and then his eyes widened at feeling Joseph take his pen away from him. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Joseph didn't answer. Instead, Sebastian watched Joseph place the pen on the paper and write something.

 _Easy. You make it different by doing something like this._

Sebastian huffed softly. "I…guess that works." He noticed the faint smirk on Joseph's face as Joseph put the pen down.

"Better than being late to your own ceremony debating such a thing." Joseph walked away from Sebastian. "Now come on."

Sebastian stood up from the chair. He looked back at the journal and gripped the pen quickly.

 _That last line was from Joseph Oda, my detective partner….and friend. Maybe next year, I'll be writing about him getting married. He deserves a nice and amazing partner-_

"Sebastian, come on." Sebastian heard Joseph say and Sebastian chuckled.

"I am!" He called back with a smile on his face.

 _And I won't accept any less for Joseph._

He placed the pen down and followed Joseph, heading to the next chapter in his life of being a married man.


	16. September 17th, 2005 (WeddingReception)

The day was kind of a blur for him. He knew he was physically there for it all. But mentally, he realized he must have withdrawn into himself at times. Enough to only recall moments that stood out to him instead of the entire ceremony leading to the reception.

One memorable moment was standing beside Sebastian as they waited for Myra. He found it hard not to smirk at Sebastian tugging at his tie and sweating a lot. It wasn't usual to see his partner expressing such typical signs of nervousness. But he guessed that even Sebastian Castellanos could be brought to such upon realizing his bride would be coming through the door any minute.

"You'll be fine." Joseph whispered softly to his friend. "Just act like a more composed less foul-mouthed version of yourself and you'll do great."

Sebastian's glare and snort were worth the comment.

Even with the desire to blend back into the crowd and not up with the other few groomsmen, he was able to witness Myra's expression at the vows and remembered it well. Seeing her eyes become vibrant and warm and aiming that gaze at Sebastian made Joseph's chest warm a bit. He couldn't help but smile. It was easy to imagine Sebastian with a similar look on his face. The happiness was radiating off them.

Seeing a married couple's love up close made him contemplate for once what that would be like for himself. Would he ever find such for himself? What kind of person would he experience that kind of love with? Was this the kind of love that lasted for years, or that kind that-No, he wasn't going to jinx the couple to an early divorce. Not when both of them were his friends.

The feelings of such a what if for himself lingered throughout the whole day. He realized his memories spun as quickly as a fast-forwarded movie after the married couple were pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Castellanos. Probably because heading towards where the photos were being taken and having to pose for what felt like hours was not something he cared much for. Sure, he didn't complain or purposefully grimace in the wedding photos. His preference to not be photographed was no excuse for ruining Sebastian and Myra's photographs. Just still wasn't pleasant.

So honestly it was a relief to finally be seated at the table with the other groomsmen and bridesmaids. However, it was a short-lived feeling. Because now that he found himself once more aware of the present, he realized he might be expected to actually make conversation. Sure Connelly wouldn't be bad to talk to since he worked with the beat cop often. But besides him, Joseph only vaguely knew the other people seated around the table.

"So you're Sebastian's work partner?" Someone asked him. Joseph tensed and looked over to see a woman looking at him. He furrowed her eyebrows. Her name was Lisa right? Myra's younger sister? No, one of her co-workers at the police force? He hated how his mind was drawing a blank.

"Yes, I am." He quickly got an answer out of him before any of the people at the table could think he was ignoring her.

"What is it like to work with him? Myra has always made him sound like he was quite good at his job, but that you better not get on his bad side." A man commented before chuckling. "Guess she never got on his bad side since they were working together until they got together and all."

Now who was this one? He glanced at Connelly who wasn't looking at him. Dammit he couldn't try the tactic of getting Connelly slip up on the name or who they were. He took a deep breath before sighing. "It can be difficult at times." He answered with a slight scowl. "He isn't quite one for paperwork and sometimes has a huge mess on his desk. He also likes to play bad cop and that doesn't always go well." He rubbed his temple. "And he isn't always one for the rulebook which has gotten us a bit in hot water a few times these past few months."

Joseph could quickly recall Sebastian breaking and entering into a suspect's place when they didn't answer when he and Sebastian could clearly hear someone inside the house. He wondered if they were just lucky for getting off with just a warning. "But even with all of that, he is someone that truly cares about his job." He smiled even as he realized the group was staring at him. He forced himself not to swallow at the unexpected, and seemingly, intense staring. "He is willing to go to great lengths to solve cases and does care for the victims." He could go on about his partner's empathic actions or determination.

The first time he really took note of it was on a case related to a kidnapped kid. It had taken weeks and many misleading and dead ends to find her. But even when some of the force figured the child was long dead, Sebastian hadn't given up. Joseph had considered briefly dissuading his partner. Thankfully he didn't as the two had cracked the case with a lead that luckily lead them to the child. The poor boy had been mistreated during those weeks. They were lucky to find the starving victim alive.

He had watched Sebastian approach the child carefully. His partner had crouched down some feet in front of the kid, giving the victim a way to run around him and not feel caged. All Sebastian had done was offer his hand and start talking gently and softly to the child. It had felt like eternity, but probably had been a few minutes before the kid started to bawl and just run towards Sebastian. The poor kid had learned in those weeks not to trust anyone. Sebastian had found a way to breech through that gained mistrust long enough to get the kid out of there and to the medical team to help him.

He especially couldn't forget the smile on Sebastian's face as his partner said that helping victims like that kid and bettering Krimson City was what he lived for.

"He is an exemplary detective and his wife is too I'm sure. Though I have not had the personal pleasure of working with her." Joseph added on before noticing the food starting to be served. "You could always ask them yourself though how it is to work with them. They might be able to give you a better picture than me." He gripped the water in front of him and quickly started to take a swig.

Just as he put the glass down, he felt someone's hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Sebastian with an grin on his face. "You all talking about us now? Better be good stuff. Am I right Joseph?"

Joseph look up at Sebastian and chuckled. "As good as being honest would allow, Sebastian."

Sebastian snorted. "Yeah yeah." He patted Joseph on his shoulder before Myra approached the table as well.

"We do thank you all for coming and being part of the wedding party. We really do appreciate it. We hope you enjoy the food." Myra smiled politely before tugging Sebastian away and towards another table.

"They sure do look like a lovely couple." Connelly said with a grin before lifting his glass of water. "To the married couple!"

Joseph opened his mouth to say it was too early for toasts. But he found himself just shaking his head and lifting his glass as well.

"To their happiness." He added on as the glasses clinked. As he set his glass down and looked over at the married couple visiting another table, he knew he meant every word.


	17. October 2nd, 2005

_October 2_ _nd_ _, 2005_

 _Today I am supposed to pick up Sebastian and Myra from the airport. I have heard no messages from them saying they would be prolonging their honeymoon. That means they should be on the 10:00am flight back from Barcelona, Spain to Krimson City. It will mean they will still likely not arrive until sometime this evening or the late-night hours. I have time then to get some work done before picking up the newlyweds._

Joseph had gotten the task shortly before the wedding had even happened. Apparently, Sebastian nor Myra had family in Krimson City. What friends they did have were the ones amongst the police force. It seemed neither of them were good at making friends outside of work. That didn't leave many options. In the end, Sebastian and Myra trusted him with the job.

He knew it would be silly to wait at the airport for hours on end for the couple. Thus, he went about the day cleaning his apartment, grocery shopping, and other tasks. Anything to keep himself busy. He rarely liked to not be busy. Because when he did relax, his mind wondered and he didn't like where his thoughts went. Either that, or he ended up drinking sake.

Time flew by as a result though. At some point, he stared at the clock with slightly widened eyes. "Oh, it's time for me to go?" He said to himself. He honestly had thought it was late afternoon. Instead, it was early evening. After making sure he looked presentable and had what he needed, he left his apartment and headed to the airport. He had to drive outside of the city to get there which meant dealing with traffic.

Considering though that the flight still likely hadn't landed yet, he could relax a bit. Well, as much as he could with honking cars and loud blaring music from some of the drivers. He huffed softly while his hands gripped ten and two on the steering wheel. Briefly, he turned on some classical music and used it to try and keep his mind calm. Something to listen to drown out the noise.

The music continued as he soon saw the airport in the distance. While Krimson City airport was not as busy as some of the more well-known airports, he could see cars driving about the place and an airplane take off the runway. He did not linger on any of those details for too long. How embarrassing it would be to get into a fender bender due to not paying attention to the road, especially so close to where he needed to be.

Once he drove into the parking lot and found a spot, he parked and locked up his car. Then, he headed inside as quickly as he could. The chilled air brushed too uncomfortably across his cheeks for him to linger outside. He stood at a screen showing the various times of flights departing and landing. It didn't take long for him to see the Barcelona flight. He recalled Myra mentioning it was a layaway flight and to look for the one coming from Atlanta and landing at A12.

If he messed it up, he supposed he would just have to ask or deal with Sebastian making fun of him later.

He headed towards the seating area by the gate and found himself sitting down between multiple people. It seemed he wasn't the only one waiting for someone. Either that, or they were waiting on their flight from A11 or one of the other nearby gates. He couldn't say for sure. It didn't change the fact he tensed his arms close to his body and kept his legs close together as well. How he hated being confined like this.

At least no one tried to attempt a conversation with him. He could not bring himself to be social right now. Not even to appear polite.

His eyes closed while he wrapped his arms around his abdomen. He crossed his legs as well. After leaning his head back against the wall, his muscles relaxed. He must have been tenser than he thought. Even with all the conversations, announcements, and sounds of moving people, he felt his consciousness slowly slip away from him.

Oh well. Guess he could afford to rest a little bit while waiting for Sebastian and Myra's flight to land.

"Joseph?"

Was that his name he was hearing?

"Jooooseepph?"

He supposed it had be. Who was saying it though?

"Come on. Wakey wakey sleeping beauty."

Joseph opened his eyes quickly at that. Who in the world said something so stupid? He looked up to see Sebastian hovering over him. He tensed up and found the rest of his sleepiness jolted right out of him. He glanced over to see Myra standing next to Sebastian. "Wait…how long have I been asleep?" Joseph looked about, noticing the lack of people in the area he was in.

"Don't know. We just found you like this." Sebastian shrugged and offered his hand. "Now come on sleepy head. You got to get us home, remember?"

He must have slept for a couple of hours at the least. He shouldn't have gotten himself so tired before coming here. Then again, he didn't feel tired until he had allowed himself to get into a somewhat comfortable position. He huffed softly and stood up from the seat without gripping Sebastian's hand. "I know. Come on then. The car is out in the parking lot." He blinked after saying that, noticing the two had more luggage than they had taken with them.

"…On second thought. I'll get the car and drive it up to the entrance." Joseph heard Sebastian laugh, causing him to glare at Sebastian. His glare only grew worse when Sebastian ruffled his hair.

"Such a gentleman. We'll wait for you at the entrance." Sebastian smiled while now having an arm around Myra. The two both appeared to be happy. So, Joseph could only assume the honeymoon went well. He walked away from the married couple though to keep himself from getting more annoyed. Once outside, he noticed the lack of cars and he could easily spot his car as a result. He smiled briefly and faintly at that, quickly heading over to the car and getting into it.

After locking the door, he sighed in relief while his hands gripped the steering wheel. How could he do such a stupid thing? Falling asleep like that in a public place? He frowned now as he started up the car. He could have gotten his stuff stolen off him. He could have caused Sebastian and Myra to have to get a ride home if they didn't find him. So many things could have gone wrong.

He would have to be better about it next time if there was a next time.

He drove to the entrance and saw the two there. Luckily, his trunk was large enough for the luggage. The couple sat in the back with Sebastian behind him and Myra behind the passenger's seat. "Thanks again." Myra told him with a polite smile on her face.

"Yeah, thanks again." Sebastian reiterated and patted the back of the driver's seat. Joseph rolled his eyes at Sebastian's gesture before putting on a faint polite smile on his own.

"No problem."

At least at the end of the day, he had gotten the job done and now could rest assured knowing he got his partner and his new wife home.


	18. November 15th, 2005

_November 15_ _th_ _, 2005_

 _I... find it so hard to write now. My hand is trembling and my heart is racing. Her words still ring through my mind…._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sebastian, we need to talk. It is best you sit down." She spoke calmly with a faint smile on her face. Nothing like the harsh scowl and cutting tone when she got angry at him. After he did so, she sat down beside him and showed him a plastic stick. It looked like one to him until he recognized the shape and the symbol on the display screen. His eyes widened and he stared at her with an opened mouth.

"Myra….is that….?" He asked with a trembling voice and Myra nodded slightly.

"Yes, we are going to have a baby."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 _A baby. A damn baby! I never thought I would be a father. Never thought I would find someone I would want to marry either. To think we are actually going to be parents to a baby boy or girl. It is so astounding to me._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sebastian wrapped his arms around Myra tightly. Her body vibrated slightly against his due to her laughter. His eyes blurred slightly. "I'm so fucking happy right now." He buried his face into her hair while feeling her returning the tight hug.

"I am too." Even though he couldn't feel it or see it, he swore she had that rare warm bright smile on her face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 _I want to shout it to the entire world! Yet, I know I can't. One, I would look like an idiot. Two, I am not sure I want my family to know yet. Myra plans to tell hers soon. But I don't think I want anyone to know that shares my blood. There is one person I do want to know though._

Sebastian dialed a phone number he felt like he might be honestly memorizing. Was that weird? He heard the phone pick up. "Hello?" Joseph greeted from the other end. Sebastian grinned.

"Hey. I got news for ya. Sit down for it." Sebastian told his partner. He swore he could see Joseph raising his eyebrow and then furrowing those eyebrows.

"Okay….?" He didn't miss Joseph's questioning tone. Barely could he stop himself from blurting the news out right there. But, he waited.

"Alright. I'm sitting down. What is it?" Joseph asked from the other end of the line. Sebastian felt his cheeks starting to get sore a bit from the grinning. Normally, he didn't grin this long. The grin hadn't left his face since he had been told earlier about the baby.

He ended up needing to take a deep breath though. Just so he would not rush his words. "Joseph, Myra's pregnant. We're having a baby."

The line sounded like it went dead. It went so quiet. If it wasn't for him hearing the occasional faint sound of breathing or the lack of a dial tone, he might honestly have thought Joseph had hung up. He sat there and tapped his finger against his desk. "Joseph?" He asked when he swore a couple of minutes passed. A slight gasp, as if he had startled Joseph, came from the phone.

"Sorry uh…I was taking a moment to process it." Joseph explained with clearly some surprise still left in his voice. "You aren't joking with me right now?"

Sebastian rolled his eyes and laughed. "Yes, Joseph. I was joking. I meant to say I was pregnant with a baby and Myra's the father."

"Oh, ha ha." Clearly Joseph didn't appreciate the sarcasm. "I just...can't believe it. I never saw either of you really around kids so I figured you two weren't even trying for one."

Sebastian shrugged softly at that. It was true neither of them had exactly acted like the overly excited for a family types. God could those people be overbearing with that shit. "It wasn't like we were actively trying. We wanted one at some point, but the child would come when it wanted to, you know?" Sebastian relaxed the grin some to where he was only smiling. "Just felt like telling you first though."

"Huh?" He heard Joseph quickly say. "You didn't tell your family first? I'm not a blood relative."

"Uh, yeah, I know that." Sebastian couldn't help but sound sarcastic. "I…have issues with my family. I don't exactly feel like bringing them into this just yet."

The call went silent again. Sebastian hoped Joseph wouldn't pry. He was not ready to talk about exactly why he hadn't talked to his parents and the rest of his family in many years.

"…Right. Well, as long as you do tell them at some point…."

Of course Joseph would say that. Sebastian stopped himself from groaning.

"Yeah yeah." Sebastian quickly said to satisfy Joseph for now. His partner would probably bring it up later. Just hopefully not within the next few days. "Anyway, you might have to help out again. So, be prepared."

Joseph chuckled and Sebastian chuckled as well. "Well, if that is the case, I'll be fine with that. Will be an…interesting experience."

"I'm sure it will." Sebastian heard Myra call his name from the other room. "I got to go now though. See you tomorrow." He hung up only after Joseph had said his goodbye.

"I'm coming!" Sebastian left the bedroom and headed into the kitchen. Myra stood by the oven, working on some baked chicken.

"Who were you talking to?" Myra asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Joseph. I figured he should know." He heard Myra chuckle softly.

"And how did I know you would tell him first? Swear you two have become quite close." 

Sebastian blinked a bit at Myra saying that. Had they? He supposed he felt he could call Joseph a friend. But, he barely knew the guy in a lot of ways. Same for Joseph knowing him.

"Uh…. right…." He said with some hesitation. "Anyway, food looks good." He walked over and hugged Myra from behind. "I'll help out in whatever way I can. Got to make sure you and the baby don't wear yourselves out."

Myra shook her head and lightly slapped him on the arm. "We're not fragile, Sebastian. But, the sentiment is appreciated."

Sebastian smiled warmly and kissed the top of her head. "Duly noted."

For now, he would not think about telling his family or the odd remark from his wife that he could be quite close to a man he barely knew. He would instead focus on the warmth in his chest and the giddiness in his step at actually getting a chance to be a father.


	19. March 30th, 2006

_March 30_ _th_ _, 2006_

 _We are supposed to find out the gender of our child today. I am kind of hoping for a boy, but I will love my child all the same if the baby is a girl instead._

Every time he had gone with Myra to her appointments, he still found seeing their child to be amazing. Sure, he couldn't see much of their features like if their child had his or Myra's eye color. But he could see their body even the fingers and toes now. It had been only today though when he had gone with Myra to yet another one of her appointments had they done the gender revealing ultrasound.

Myra had prepared him for it. Yet he still found himself having his breath taken away at seeing their child on the ultrasound screen. Unlike the other times though, he got to wait with bated breath to hear if they were having a boy or a girl.

"How do you think he'll react later?" Sebastian asked right before kissed his wife's temple. He chuckled at the faint smirk on her face.

"Well, you didn't spoil it for him did you?" Myra kept her gaze focused on the ultrasound. "Because knowing you, you might have dropped hints. And he might have started to suspect something as sa result."

Sebastian huffed faintly. "I just said told him I had something to show him later today. I don't think that was telling him too much." A brief and faint pout showed on his face as Myra laughed softly."

"Guess that has got him all curious at least."

Sebastian nodded and smirked. "Yeah, he won't know what hit him later." He heard his wife snort.

"You think he will flip out on you?" She raised an eyebrow and then the doctor waved their hand.

"Well, I believe I know the sex of your baby. It is…"

Sebastian sat down on his couch. He saw Joseph sitting across from him. It was apparent Joseph was tense with the way he had both his arms and legs crossed, his arms close to his sides. "Geez. You act like I'm about to drop the news that the world will never be able to make Lysol anymore." Sebastian snickered while Joseph narrowed his eyes.

"I just don't like surprises. I would rather you just have told me what this was going to be about. Cryptic bugs me." Joseph adjusted the glasses along the bridge of his nose. "So, what is it?"

Now Sebastian really was sure this interaction was going to be amusing. "I got something to show you, Joseph." He pulled out something from his pocket. He turned the piece of paper, revealing a picture of ultrasound. Joseph's eyes widened. "Wait, that was this was about? Come on Sebastian! You didn't have to hide that." The detective groaned slightly. "So, you two were able to find out the sex of your child then?"

Sebastian nodded with a smile on his face. "Yeah, there's the first picture of my little girl and your god daughter."

"Wait what?" Joseph raised an eyebrow. "God daughter?" Joseph stared at the sonogram, gently taking it from Sebastian.

"Joseph, that's the reason I was hiding this. Me and Myra wanted to surprise you with the request." Sebastian tilted his head before shrugging slightly. "Now before you say anything, yes, it is true Myra threw out some suggestions of people on her side of the family. I had no one on my side come to mind. So, in the end, we decided to settle for someone we both knew and liked." He pointed at Joseph. "You came to mind obviously."

He watched Joseph swallow and adjust his glasses with his free hand. "Just feels like a lot of responsibility. I'm not sure I can handle someone viewing me in such a manner and having to be their role model."

Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows. "Joseph, it's not like we are shoving this at you and making you have to be the godfather." He explained with a small smile. "It's just an offer that will stand until you give a for sure no. Not like our daughter has to have a godparent…does she?" He blurted out before he could catch himself.

Hearing Joseph chuckle slightly caused Sebastian to tense and his cheeks to redden slightly.

"No, not everyone has a godparent." Joseph chuckled a bit more and handed Sebastian back the sonogram. "But, I'll think on it." He smiled faintly. "Either way, congratulations, Sebastian. I'm happy for you both."

Sebastian put the sonogram back in his pocket. Then he headed over towards Joseph and pulled him a one arm hug. "Thanks, Joseph. Means a lot coming from you."

He felt Joseph tense against him. He was about to pull back when he felt Joseph pat him on the back. "Glad to hear that." Joseph said through what Sebastian felt was clenched teeth.

"Sorry there. Forgot you weren't much for hugs." Sebastian let go of him. "But, just let us when you got it figured out alright?"

Joseph looked at Sebastian and smiled faintly.

"Will do."


End file.
